Krait book 11b In Fraser's Footsteps
by slytherinsal
Summary: Parallel in time to 'Head Girl of Prince Peak' this follows the fortunes of the Hogwarts students during the triwizard of 2004-5.  Plenty of Marauders, a cursed boy, romance, Odessa, awful parents; the usual mix! Plus a new subject...
1. Chapter 1

_If I'm at all erratic posting this I apologise in advance; I'll post this on Tuesday possibly in lieu of Wednesday as we have a vet visit for little girls to be spayed and if they're not well_ _after what are big ops for little girls_, _they come first. _**  
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**Chapter 1**

Leo had thrown an un-Leo like huff over Lydia going to the World Cup with her parents.

"I suppose you're going to snog Viktor Krumm afterwards too, either to congratulate him or commiserate him" he said snippily.

"I dunno" said Lydia "I might. He's Bloodkin after all so he's an appropriate boyfriend; and he's really nice and he's special to us Mad Marauders because we rescued him. What's wrong with that?"

Leo got very red in the face.

"Because I don't want you to" he said too loudly.

Lydia looked at him shrewdly.

"You mean you're jealous because you fancy me too?" she said bluntly.

Leo blushed more.

"Yeah" he said.

Lydia sighed. Men were so very difficult to cope with when they were fancying one. It would almost be easier just to never grow up and never have to be anything but friends with all of them.

"The thing is, Leo" she said "If it's not going to work between you and me, and we force it, it'll be an awful rift in the bloodgroup. I need to be sure. I don't know if I want to snog Viktor. You and I tried it and it kind of got less interesting then going in search of something to eat; 'cos we were too young. I think I still feel too young to make up my mind. I think if it IS going to work between you and me we'd be stronger for standing back for now and getting closer when we're older. We're only doing OWLs this year for goodness sake!"

"Well I don't see why that matters" said Leo sulkily "I know I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

"I can't be sure you mean that though, can I?" said Lydia "You got all dewy eyed listening to Sophrana Crotchet quavering away on the Wireless and said she was some woman. AND she doesn't sing from her chest though goodness knows she's got enough to sing from."

"NOW who's acting jealous?"

Lydia shrugged.

"Maybe I am. I think we're both being childish and I think we should get all our childishness out of our systems snogging other people for practise until we're ready to see if we want to settle down. I'll make a pact, I'll only snog people out of the bloodgroup if you do too; 'cos I wouldn't want to hurt Viktor any more than you. I don't even know if he looks on me as more than the kid of a friend, y'know? He's attractive….he's not good looking but he's attractive. The thing is, Leo, I guess if push came to shove just about any of the Kindred could get together with any other and still have a better relationship than most people outside of it…but we DO have our special ones too. And that's why I'd rather wait and see if you and I ARE each other's special ones. Or if we haven't even MET our special ones" she sighed "It's all very well for Jade, she met Wulf and KNEW. We're too familiar to each other Leo. Like Hermione and Ron; and look at all the trouble THEY had. At least we can talk about things."

"Well you lecture and I listen."

"Excuse me, you're QUITE ready to put in your two-knut's worth when you feel like it" said Lydia. "I'm not so unrealistic as to expect to have what mum and dad have; their love was forged in shared fear, pain, terror and expectation of death. It has a rather profound effect I should think. It's why they can afford to have Sirri and Dione as extra wives because there's so much love there they can afford to share to those who need it most. I don't know I'd even want anything that deep, profound, and scary. But I DO want to be sure, Leo. And if I am sure about someone else, that means so will you be when you find yours, and better to find out we're not just drifting into a relationship because we're always knocking around together and everyone expects it."

"Mei's settled to Mad."

"Well that's nice for them. Chad and Polly aren't a couple though. And they've got the sense not to try to be. I wondered if Mei would end up sharing them at one point but I don't think that's going to happen; but there's piles of Belle Marauders following us. Hey, Kinat's not settled with anyone yet, even if Lynx has managed to have Hawke's babe rather unplanned. Those two are an item and that's been obvious for ages. I'm two years younger than Lynx; and a year younger than Mei for that matter. I'm going to wait and see. I love you very much; but I'm just not sure yet if that's in a boyfriend sort of way or a favourite brother marauder sort of way. Please give me room?"

Leo shuffled his shoulders.

"Of course; how can I not?" he said gruffly "But…. Well anyway, don't snog creeps all right?"

"I don't think I would" said Lydia, wondering if anybody not Leo would constitute a creep in his book!

Lydia had the chance to speak alone to Viktor when they had all gone in David Fraser's enchanted Catalina flying boat to Belsornia, a magically unplottable land likely to be a long term venue. David landed on the lake downstream of the river that divided the dragon reserve from the hilly portion of the unplottable area and the Snapes set up camp near the Bulgarian team to help keep an eye on Viktor. Lydia had no trouble getting private speech with the hawk-faced Bulgarian seeker.

"Viktor, this is a tad embarrassing" she said "Leo got all embarrassingly jealous about me liking you; and the thing is that I don't feel more than the love that is the blood-bond for either. You look on me as a child of a friend, don't you?"

Viktor smiled warmly.

"I look on you too as a kind friend to my little sister" he said "If more was going to grow in after years that would be another matter. Zvetelina wants me to marry you – she wants you as a sister! But I am not ready for romance; I do not know if it would even be right, for I am a fighter against Odessa; and now a declared one and therefore the sort of high profile target they would be glad to bring down. I wait I think for love to hit my between the eyes out of the blue like a snitch that wants to be caught."

"Viktor, you great big softy!" laughed Lydia "I hope you find it. You're so very nice; I could love you I think. But….. I don't know where I am right now" she added forlornly.

Viktor kissed her hand.

"Then stay being nowhere, little Lydia, until there is somewhere you want to be" he said. "You don't have to be content with kissing frogs until you meet your prince. One day, you will know; and that's all that will be important. Do not force any issues."

Lydia stood on tiptoes to kiss his cheek.

"Thank you Viktor" she said.

The kiss was of course photographed; and then reporters were demanding a story.

"Acch, you are such silly fellows" said Viktor to the questing scandalmongers. "Lydia is the child of dear friends of mine; she is as family to me. She is a schoolgirl! You think I take a romantic interest in a scrubby child with skinned knees? She is chaser for her school house and has played seeker; that is what I take interest in!"

Lydia, through the bloodsong felt a tacit apology for calling her a scrubby child with skinned knees – though such a condition was not entirely uncommon still – and was grateful that Viktor passed off the incident with such aplomb.

In response to questions over how long she had known Viktor she laughed.

"Oh since the infamous Triwizard Harry and Cedric won when Viktor was also a schoolboy….. I lived in school with my parents you see and got to meet people. Viktor's always been a bit of a hero of mine, like Harry; having grown ups to look up to is important, isn't it?"

And that disposed of that story if Viktor was no more than a grown-up to look up to.

So banal a story would not even appear in The Daily Prophet.

It was the first Quidditch World Cup ever to be opened by a muggle.

The Princess Josefina made a brief speech proclaiming her interest in Quidditch and her joy at the glad co-operation between those of the magical community and those who were their friends among the muggle world and thanked the wizarding world for setting up Wizarding Wireless listening stations for such of her muggle subjects as were interested to participate in this great honour to their little country.

Belsornia had never signed an agreement to hide magic from muggles; it had been forgotten about by the larger countries. It was not therefore breaking any laws and tentatively the wizarding world watched how the acceptance of their existence by the small number of muggles here was working.

The Belsornian wizarding community, a small contingent since most of those of magical blood had long since withdrawn to the magical country of Zorn, hidden by fidelius charm, put on a display with the magnificent winged horses that lived in the mountains between Zorn and Belsornia. They were delicate silvery white beasts unlike any of the familiar four kinds of winged horse; closest to the Granian but smaller and lither.

There were gasps of admiration at the tight formation flying of the horses, unridden save the leader who bore Prince Franz, the wizard husband of Princess Josefina. The display ended with the Belsornian Steeds bowing their heads to the box of dignitaries and equally saluting each team before Prince Franz dismounted and they flew away in equally perfect formation.

Lydia knew, because Jade had told her, that these horses were semi-sentient and would never be for sale; but she still longed to fly on one!

Next the teams came out with their mascots; the dancing singing Veeli supporting the Bulgarians and half confunding all males of appropriate age; and dancing in a wilder fashion the jaguar spirits of the Brazilian jungles, shape-shifting fey whose usual chosen forms were that of humanoid shape with jaguar heads and fur on their bodies. They had females dancing lithe erotic dances and males doing wild war dances and snarling.

Lydia hoped that whatever pact the Brazilian team had made with their dangerous looking fey had been quite watertight. The Amazonian tradition was also stiff with naming magic, or rather the magic of avoiding the use of names and using nicknames to avoid the notice of the Yolok spirits.

Then the teams came out.

The Bulgarians were a vigorous team who held nothing back – though they had been gentler playing the Hogwarts school team last year, Lydia had noted, than their usual reputation for almost rough play; but in her opinion the Brazilians looked like a bunch of thugs.

"HEY,VIKTOR! Don't play them until you've heard them talk!" she yelled merrily.

There was laughter from around her.

"Look like a bunch of 'alf trolls, don't they, missus?" said a cheery little cockney wizard nearby "Cor, no wonder they got the reputation for the most penalties in fifty years!"

Volkov and Vulchanov, whilst perfectly charming chatting to schoolchildren off the pitch had enough of a reputation for not caring if it was the Bludger they hit or a chaser who was in the way; but the Brazilian beaters Antecume and Rodrigues looked as though they would prefer to maim a person to hitting the ball.

The Brazilian supporters raised a massive cheer as their Seeker came out; Sueli Silva was known as La Mariposa, the butterfly, and she was dwarfed by the rest of her team, a tiny delicate looking woman who was as tough as old boots and flew with the grace and skill of a butterfly, seeming to float aimlessly about until finally she would swoop and seize the snitch often from under the nose of the opposition.

Viktor would have his work cut out.

The game was on!

The crowd was knowledgeable, cheering clever feints and good moves, booing fouls; and fouls there were in plenty. Antecume and Rogrigues both made as though to swing at the bludger and hit, instead, Ivanova in the midriff; and the miss was far enough off to be obviously intended.

This was enough for Volkov and Vulchanov to start retaliating for their chaser.

It was the dirtiest match any of the Snapes had ever seen, even those who had been involved in the match against Durmstrang where the reserve had been jinxing their opponents. The jungle spirits snarled every time one of their team got a penalty; and the veeli tried desperately to distract the referee from his duty.

Next time that might even be David Fraser; he was taking his International Referee's exams after the World Cup, having to mark this match too for every foul in a viva voce exam as it went on for the examining body, he and every other entrant marking this as well as sitting a written exam rather than refereeing an actual minor league match. It was considered quite as valid; after all he had proved his flying skills as a National level referee.

Lydia did not envy David!

Jade sat with her sister.

"Crikey, I'm sorry for the Ref!" she said.

"Yes, vamped by Veeli, jinxed by jaguars and barged by beaters" said Lydia. Jade laughed.

"You're as fond of alliteration as Dad!" she said. "I've missed you, being at the other school."

"Me too; but we have the blood tie" said Lydia "Jade, d'you think Leo and I are going to be an item?"

"If you don't know that yet yourself, Lydie, no-one else can say for you" said Jade. "Hermie and Ron needed a kick start because neither of them would TALK to the other; reckon you and Leo manage that at least?"

"Yeah" said Lydia. "OUCH!" as Viktor took a bludger to the side of the head. The blood group had absently dissipated the pain and damage between themselves in automatic reaction when Lydia added "I say, did we just cheat?"

"Dunno" said Jade "Evened up the cheating on the other side a little maybe. Filthiest game I ever saw!"

The Bulgarian chasers were obviously more talented – now Ivanova had received medical attention – and the Brazilian Beaters started taking refuge in Bumphing, hitting the bludger towards the crowd to cause a halt in the game at crucial moments in a scoring run.

The crowd booed.

David Fraser, inside his examination booth, said to his examiner,

"Sir, why don't you have a skilled chanter to put up a protective circle around the pitch and bounce the bludger back so these stupid interruptions need not be made?"

"Probably because, Mr Fraser, there aren't that many that talented ritual magicians out there" said the examiner.

David snorted.

"With due respect sir, nonsense! I'd need backup to do it myself, three others of similar ability; but Severus Snape is out there, who was my guardian; and he could do it alone, let alone if he had backup from his kids and wives."

The official snapped his fingers for a house elf and sent a message to Severus.

The elf apparated directly to the Snape family and put the request.

Severus nodded.

"It'll take a few minutes" he said.

A time out was called; and Severus placed Lydia, Jade, Krait, Dione, Sirri, Erich and Tala at strategic points.

The chant was not complex; and needed only about a quarter hour chanting with several of them to intertwine the protective wall. It might not be a dome since a player might fly as high as they wished so long as they did not leave the area of the pitch; and the protection was against, effectively, missiles, which brooms might also count as if flying fast enough.

The Jaguar spirits tried to set up a counter chant; but Severus absently dropped a silencing spell on them without breaking chant, or even getting out his wand.

Several Veeli went and kicked them.

The referee called in the examinees to back him in breaking up the disgraceful little fight that ensued between the mascots; and David Fraser was voted an excellent man to have along since he seemed to be impervious to the Veeli's charms and snarled back at the snarling jaguars.

The charmed wall was in place; and naturally the Brazilian beaters had to try it out.

The trajectory of the direct shot into the crowd hit the wall – it has to be said that the crowd behind the invisible wall winced and ducked – and bounced directly back, taking Rodrigues by surprise and knocking him clean off his broom.

"Thought that might happen" said Severus in some satisfaction "they should study muggle physics and snooker."

"It'll lead to some interesting new tactics" said Jade. "I can think of all sorts of ways of using that and I'm not even a beater by trade."

"I can think of a few things to do with a quaffle" said Krait.

"But you, my dear, already applied snooker tactics to an elastic collision between snitch and quaffle for Harry back at the Durmstrang match" said Severus equably. "Beautifully weighted and avoiding the foul of snitchnipping since you never touched it. Hello, is that a Brazilian down?"

It was; Volkov and Vulchanov were getting a severe talking to for cobbing; an elbow on each side.

"Rather an interpretive rule that" said Jade "EXCESSIVE use of the elbows. When does use of the elbows become excessive and when is it only part of a high spirited jostling? I say ban ALL elbow use. Hello, they're off again!"

It was well into the afternoon before the shout went up that La Mariposa had seen the snitch!

She was across Viktor and on it before the Bulgarian could react; but then he was in pursuit, neck and neck, the chase for the snitch taking them dangerously close to the ground, then up again! The blood group fought NOT to synchronise heartbeats with Viktor, so exciting was it and so tempting so to do; and then he was reaching over Silva's shoulder, his long, uncoordinated looking arms reaching further than hers; and the whistle blew!

There appeared to be an altercation between Viktor and the diminutive Brazilian seeker; and the referee came over, expostulating and waving his arms a lot.

The officials all went into a huddle.

It lasted long enough that the crowd started booing and the more imprudent threw things – which promptly bounced of the magical barrier on the crowd side.

The announcer was consulted.

"The officials have informed me that the snitch had been examined for the blood-memory of who first seized it and that it was grabbed simultaneously by both seekers!" he said "This has never happened in all the history of Quidditch…. Therefore the referee had awarded one hundred and fifty points each to Brazil and Bulgaria, bringing the score to Bulgaria three hundred and ninety and Brazil, three hundred and seventy!"

The crowd went wild.

And it was over bar the interviews, Princess Josefina saying a few words to the effect that she was glad that such a level of penalties was not considered normal and that she was glad that the team that behaved itself least worst had also been the victors; and that if such shocking behaviour was displayed at the next international match Belsornia hosted she would have to seriously reconsider the donation of this ground as a venue.

It was to be hoped that being reprimanded by a muggle might shame the players into better behaviour in future!

Lydia stayed for the celebration party; then she must get back to England. Last year it had been Jade's duty to be separated from the family to see to Wulf; this year it was her turn to go with the Mad Marauders to get to know Mortimer Bane, ward and protégé of the Malfoy twins – Hawke in particular – before he started in the sixth at Hogwarts. Hawke had described him as 'rather like me, a bit hardboiled on the outside in a good layer of armour'. He would be defensive at 'posh kids' no doubt; it was up to the mad marauders that they could survive his rough environs to impress him so that he would take advice about how to survive THEIR environs.

She kissed Viktor goodbye with deep affection; and kissed his sister Zvetelina almost as affectionately. Zvetelina was disappointed not to see a more passionate leave-taking of her brother; Lydia was a nice person whom she would have loved to have welcomed as a sister, but apparently it was not to be despite the so-romantic saving of Viktor's life where Lydia had chanted over him to save him!

Zvetelina sighed.

Such was life.

And at least her dear brother WAS alive, and safe!

And she, Zvetelina, had managed with the aid of such as Lydia and her group – most of whom were not taking OWLs until the following summer – to gain nine OWLs all at 'E' grade, quite respectable for any Hufflepuff and a poke in the eye to that horrid Bernard Corbin of Ravenclaw who had called her a 'stupid foreigner'.

Besides, she distinctly recalled HIM getting hot and flustered over the three nice curing potions they had to brew for the Potions exam; that she had found quite easy. And she knew that she had gained the higher grade for improvising and producing the snow-blindness curing potion because Lydia had asked her to help her look it up in the school library to send a copy to Professor Snape in Austria where such things were necessary. It would be sweet to ask Bernard what grade he got at potions.

It served him right for declaring that as there had been one year's departure from the Draught of Peace it was bound to be set again. The examiners were just getting a little more creative, that was all.

Or, as Lydia had caustically said, had dug out a load of past papers and were recycling them which would be, said Lydia, just like Horace. Whoever Horace might be.

"Hello!" said Lydia "I'm Lydia Snape, Hawke and Abrax are my cousins, are you Mortimer Bane?"

"Yeah" said the boy, cautiously taking the hand that was thrust at him.

She saw a slender boy with the marks of goblin heritance about his sharp face that had filled out from half starved into gamin; framed by now clean chestnut hair brushed back in imitation of Hawke's own firmly Malfoy style. His eyes glittered black as he regarded her. He saw a china doll of a girl with pale blonde ringlets, magnolia skin and huge dark blue eyes in a perfect face with a little but straight nose and a veritable rosebud of a mouth. If anything she was lovelier – thought Mortimer – than Erica Malfoy, whom he knew slightly for the fact that she and her adoptive brother Gorbrin often visited the neighbourhood to visit friends.

"Why then, as you're Hawke's ward, I guess that makes us courtesy cousins then" said Lydia. "It's a wonderful name; if you shortened it to 'Mort Bane' you could have people wondering if you were a dark wizard on account of 'Mort' being Latin for death. Like in 'Voldemort' you know, meaning 'One who flees from death' but death BANE kinda had a better ring like you get your retaliation in first to death…. I talk a load of crap don't I?" she grinned.

He grinned back.

"It's handy to know things like that I guess…. I never knew what his name meant."

"It's like Deatheaters; they wanted to defeat death. Which you can't of course; all you can do is learn not to fear it and then meet it with a smile on your face."

"Easy for you to say; some of us have come close to it."

Lydia pushed back the curl on her forehead, revealing the zig-zag scar.

"They don't hand these out with the school uniform" she said dryly "You have to have been part of the pact that bounced the killing curse. I have. More than once. Do you make the mistake that because I look harmless that I am? I'm not. I've fought dark wizards and werewolves and Huorns and erklings. I'm not as clever or as hard as my big sister, but I'm not some wimp with fortunate relatives to get me into Hogwarts you know. I'm the first one here but you're being met by the Marauders; and we go out of our way to stand into danger and fight for what's right. Hawke thought we should vet you out to maybe join our gang, or the Dell-Tuthill group who do the same sort of thing only not quite as much so. We already have six; which is large but we shan't quibble if Hawke's right and you're the right stuff. But you'd need to prove yourself able you know."

"I'm fairly able. Death here comes more from the empty belly than from violence; and some people face it with numb acceptance, but I say you HAVE to fight death or you cave in and fade away!"

She regarded him thoughtfully.

"In that respect, yes, I agree wholeheartedly. I just meant that if you are in a situation where you can choose to run away and leave your friends in danger, or stand into danger yourself and damn the consequences, it's a poor prune who funks out."

"Yeah, I agree with that" he said. "Though I reckon that's easier to do in the heat of the moment than for some of the people down here to go on living."

She nodded.

"Yes, Lucius is sticking his oar in to improve matters but it'll take time. There's only so many creeps he can manage to ruin in any given year; and even with mum and dad investing in things – like cousin Albertine's muggle goods stall, 'cos she won't take anything more than a partnership 'cos she's dead proud like all Snapes – it'll take a while."

"Albertine Gregg's your cousin?"

"Yes, on my dad's side. He had a wicked uncle who was a bit of a tart. Why are you laughing?"

"Hearing a man described like that – it seems odd."

"Well what should I call him? He wasn't a whore, he was only an amateur and scarlet man is a bit silly sounding. He isn't any more; dad got sick of fishing abandoned women and kids out of the gutter and jinxed him so hard he can only use it to pee with. NOW what have I said?"

"I guess you look so like a picture out of a society magazine it's funny hearing you say things so coarse!" chuckled Mortimer.

Lydia smiled primly.

He laughed again.

"And specially when you look like that!" he added.

"I've found that an air of prim innocence gets one out of an awful lot of trouble" said Lydia, equably. "It even works on Madam McGonagall, who's fairly on the ball and cynical. Anyway, Albertine's our cousin and she's profiting from the new law that muggle goods can be converted to being powered by wand so long as they've been ministry-checked for safety. Lucius poked it through on the grounds that as there was plenty of muggle stuff in our society it was better for it to be sanctioned and licensed and checked than faulty. After all the MSHG has had a toaster for years and never cared how illegal it might be. Mind you, when we were fighting Voldemort, with the dickheads in the ministry then, nine things out of ten that we did were illegal so I suppose we're not very good examples to set everyone else" she twinkled at him. "What NEWTs are you sitting? Mei – she's the one of us in your year – is sitting seven but she took twelve OWLs at 'O' 'cos she's what Ravenclaws are supposed to be – sharp enough to be a walking _diffindo_ spell."

He laughed.

"And I note there's no jealousy in your voice there" he said. "I'm taking five; the Professors Malfoy thought I could do it."

"Excellent! What are you taking?"

"Charms, Potions, Transfigurations, Arithmancy and Defence against the Dark Arts" reeled off Mortimer. "I got 'O' in all of them at OWL!" he added proudly.

"You are a high flyer then" said Lydia, impressed. "You started in the fourth of course – that's an awful lot of hard work catching up as well as raw talent!"

Mortimer looked pleased.

"Well I had the run of the library in the holidays too" he admitted.

"And the will to use it properly" said Lydia dryly. "Like my mum; well, she's my adopted mum, we were all in an orphanage together; it swallowed magic. She was fifteen when she got to school, was put back to the fourth and proceeded to catch up to her own age. With a very respectable number of NEWTs too; though anyone who was in the front line against Voldemort DID get DADA at 'O' as a gimme, though I bet it was a stiffer exam than anything the ministry could set so it was deserved! She wanted to please my dad, he adopted us, see, my sister Jade and me, and married mum. Are you going to take extra OWLs in things Hawke and co can't offer yet?"

"I don't know; Professor Hawke suggested I might if I wanted. He told me about Geomancy and Comparative Magic and seems like there's some new ones, Chanting and Metalwork."

"Yes, Leo and me thought we'd see if we couldn't catch up two years in metalwork in one, or if not take it in the Lower Sixth" said Lydia "You could either do the same – so YOU take it in the Lower Sixth – or take it alongside NEWTs if you wanted to. There's a goblin metalcrafter has agreed to teach the SERIOUS students; he's not demanding an OWL in enchanting, or that people should be studying it but he's quicker to take those of goblin blood or those already showing an interest in enchanting. Chanting's cool, we all picked an OWL up for using it for real and Lucius gave us a stiff viva voce exam based on the older ones' written. It helps no end with enchanting and also for healing cursed wounds; which is why dad taught himself. We all worked together to teach ourselves too" said Lydia fairly modestly as she had been the one leading the classes.

"What do you think's most useful?"

"Well I'm not taking geomancy because I'm not as good at it as some; and I figured I couldn't really fit in more than eleven OWLs just for sheer time in the day" said Lydia "Not if I want a life as well. Which I do. And I'm dead keen to try the metalworking because it's new and – well, partly it's because it's something my sister HASN'T done. I think chanting is tremendously important but only if you can ally it with DADA or Potions or Enchanting; and if you don't have Arithmancy you're not going to be much cop at it at higher levels. Still, at OWL level you don't need MUCH Arithmancy and it still adds to other stuff; but if you're arithmancer enough to have an 'O' at OWL you're one of life's brainy people and well capable of taking ritual magic as high as you care to risk."

He shot her a look to see how much she was joking.

She wasn't; and he realised it.

"What was the riskiest magic you performed then?" he felt he had to ask.

"At the time, because nobody knew anything about it, being part of the Blood Pact; and my sister and I were included at six and seven years old because then we could be tracked if Voldemort kidnapped us. The stiffest one I knowingly chose to take part in was the eight hour chant to free house elves from the compulsion to self punish. I have very good reasons; two of my adoptive siblings are elves; and my dear friend and fellow marauder Polly. I hope you're not racist? 'cos here come the rest now."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Mortimer regarded the approaching group with some trepidation. The tall pretty girl with oriental looks must be Mei Chang; the little elf in a red sun frock was Polly. The three boys differed wildly in looks. One was a delicate looking individual with golden curls who looked a cissy – or would have done if he wasn't busy in a bit of fisticuffs with the dark haired untidy boy – and the third was a neat lad, tall and good looking without any remarkable features and with nondescript brownish blonde hair.

"Hi Mortimer" said Mei "Ignore Mad and Leo; Leo was so tasteless as to comment on Mad's pwetty darwling curwls."

"The curls don't do him any favours" said Mortimer.

"Are you telling me?" said Mad "My mum however likes them; she's daft that way, and I love her enough not to make a fuss – well not too much – in the hols. I cut them short for school, don't worry you won't have to associate with a figure of fun around normal people. Lydia grows them for me before the hols each time so the Mater doesn't have conniptions. I AM going to put my foot down when I have OWLs but in the meantime it don't hurt me and makes her happy so where's the harm? The people I think most of know I'm not a precious pet, so I don't care. Unless they make tasteless remarks" he added, aiming a kick at Leo.

"Pax, old man, I apologise!" laughed Leo "It was too tempting not to comment; you looked far too precious to be walking past Kordach's, how could I resist asking if you were applying for the job of one of his beauties?"

Mortimer laughed.

"I see the temptation but equally I can see why retaliation was deserved and required!" he said.

"Exactly" said Chad, speaking for the first time. "I stay WELL out of things like that; whatever I may think. The only thing I get partisan about is NOT supporting Montrose Magpies."

"I'll bite" said Mortimer.

"Eunice Murray's great nephew is in our house and he's a bit of a brat" said Chad "He's not quite so brattish as he was – unlike the GREAT Amos Leroy – but he's still known as Me-first Murray with good reason. I SIT on kids like that."

"The GREAT Amos Leroy? You mean the great AMOS LEROY?" asked Mortimer.

"Yeah. Don't say you've heard of him?" Chad looked dismayed.

"No" said Mortimer "It just seemed the right sort of comment to make. Never heard of him at all."

They laughed.

"He'll do" said Mad. "So long as he only EVER calls me Mad and doesn't ever use my real name."

"I don't even know it so that's all right" said Mortimer.

"He ought to know in case he encounters your mum" said Mei "He's – don't laugh – Amadeo Hero Lockhart and when he hasn't had his hair sorted he looks like he deserves it."

"Crumbs!" said Mortimer with deep feeling.

"Mind you, Amos Leroy looks like he deserves it and he really does" said Mad cheerfully. "He LIKES having golden curls can you believe it? He looks like that awful kid in the Fairywood tales, Chrysogon Rufus."

"They got books about him in the creche, and poems too" said Mortimer. "He seems a bit much to take."

"Oh it wouldn't be quite so bad if he wasn't really worse than the poems" said Mad mournfully "I'm afraid he's distantly related to me; he's about nine or ten now so with luck we'll have left if he comes to Hogwarts. Unless he goes to Hellibores" he brightened. "Which he might because some of my relatives do. His mother's a connection of my father and I'm afraid he has the same surname; just as I thought I'd lived down my father too! How can we ever forget that dear sweet poem that ends every verse with 'Chrysogon Rufus is feeding the gnomes'?"

"Be fair Mad" said Lydia "WE were all expecting you to be awful based on what Pris said bout you, 'cos she'd only ever seen you with your mum and didn't realise what a demon you really are. She had it all wrong; you might too."

"Well I guess" said Mad "But I fear I doubt it. Last time I saw him I tried very hard to get him to come out and get mucky - and I PROMISED I could get him clean again too – and he threw a blue fit. You'd have thought I threatened to kill the brat!"

"Hmm that does sound fairly conclusive" said Chad "Mind you, I KNOW you, Mad Lockhart; and if you said you'd let him play hurley or something similar then the poor brat could be forgiven for thinking you wanted to kill him. I've SEEN you play hurley. Hell, I've been on the opposing team and that SMARTS!"

"You play hurley at Hogwarts?" Mortimer was surprised.

"Only informally" said Mei "It's for fun and it helps us with Hockey, which is a muggle game, but we play muggle sports so we can have fixtures with muggle schools and hide us by obviousness. It's fun too. Hockey's less violent than hurley but we keep hurley up because we've had problems with the fey before. And so we may need to defeat them at Hurley like we have done at quidditch. Well, WE haven't but older Marauders have; even Hawke and Abraxus and Romulus were too young for that one. It was the original Marauders and Harry and co. By the way people, as Hawke hinted heavily and as he feels okay, are we bringing him in?"

"I thought he might like to find his feet first and decide if he's going to combine with us" said Lydia mildly. "He might find Lionel's bunch more convivial; and that's not a problem as we all work together. Or he might not want to join a blood group at all; some people don't you know. Giving Mort the choice seemed kind of a little more courteous."

"I would like to wait and find my feet before I make up my mind about anything big" said Mortimer, his head spinning a little at realising he had just been invited to join something a little more serious than just a gang.

"Yes, anyone with sense would" said Chad "Which is why we jumped in with both feet; we don't HAVE any sense. Mind, they had been working with us, the next Marauders up, before we were brought in, them and the New Marauders – that's the Malfoy Twins, Rom Snape, Kinat and part time Willow Prince-Black" he explained.

"It – it's blood ritual? And they're Marauders too? Professor Hawke never said!" said Mortimer.

"Didn't want to prejudice you against the rest of us!" laughed Lydia

Mortimer opened his mouth to defend Professor Hawke then realised she was teasing and grinned shamefaced.

"Well I SHOULD like to wait a while" he said "Find my feet on my own without feeling that I'm protected by a gang that's considered prestigious; even I know THAT much about Marauders."

"That's more than chill" said Mad.

"Reckon you're all right" said Leo – it has to be said a trifle reluctantly – glancing at Lydia to see what she thought of Mortimer.

She plainly liked him.

Leo sighed; the look she was giving him was a 'keep your mouth shut and don't interfere' look.

If she chose this Mortimer over him, and he WAS a marauder he would have to accept it; as Severus accepted Lily loving James. Leo did not know much about the original Marauders save that there had been a few issues between Prongs and Scales but that they were long since resolved. It was real Maraudery brotherly love to accept when the girl you fancied like mad chose another of your brothers.

And Hawke thought this was another brother for them.

Well Lydia wasn't blind to his partiality anyway; and she wasn't playing games, just not sure yet. And that was all right; he'd wait for her to make up her mind and he'd try to be patient about it.

Girls were weird.

Some of them marked out their man really early – like Lynx had marked out Hawke when she was in the first year! – and others seemed to take their own sweet time about realising who loved them most.

VERY peculiar.

Lydia was frowning.

"You know" she said "Chrysogon is a GIRLS name; it's ancient Greek it means golden woman. The male version is Chrysander."

"Yeah, but then there's Newt Scamander" said Chad "His full name is Newton Artemis Fido Scamander. And Artemis is the name of a Greek goddess you know."

"Yes of course it is!" said Lydia "Crumbs! How iggerant some parents can be!"

"Well only to be expected with the Lockharts I'm afraid" said Mad "Married into the Hellibores through the astounding good looks of my grandfather, and terribly keen on impressing the posh people we're associated with by picking names with what sounds like cachet. Mei, when we gat hitched, let's call our brats things like Fred or Enid; nice plain down to earth names."

Mei laughed.

"We'll call them something sensible certainly; and probably after other Marauders" she said "Keep up the traditions. James for a boy perhaps or Harry and I guess Hermione's not TOO outlandish or massage Severus into Vera or something. Or Ron into Rona or Ronalda."

"Yeah, normal sounding names" said Mad equably. "Heh HOW he's going to be ragged for having a girl's name!"

"If, alas, anyone even realises" said Lydia in a hollowly mournful voice"They let all sorts of riff-raff into Hogwarts these days, Malfoys and the like."

There was much laughter especially from Mortimer who had not quite adapted to Lydia's rather straight faced humour yet!

Lydia had lost attention; and sprang to her feet, grimly determined as a well-robed individual held his wand on a man out with his pregnant wife and a small girl of about thirteen.

"Don't you give me 'cured' Ulric Rolf" the aggressor snarled "I know because I checked that you've not made registry with the Werewolf office for years before the cure even came out! And you haven't even registered your daughter!"

"And that" said Lydia crisply behind him "Is because Mr Rolf was a volunteer for the experimental and more painful cures that preceded those now considered acceptable."

The man swung round and sneered.

"Beat it kid" he said "What could YOU know?"

"A sight more than you, apparently" Lydia permitted herself a Malfoyish sneer "Since MY father, Professor Severus Snape, was the one who developed the cure; and Mr Rolf lived in chambers attached to Hogwarts while he was being an experimental subject. Also I know that Kelly here is Mr Rolf's stepdaughter and as a muggle she goes to Rowan House School; she has never been a werewolf and therefore does not require registry. And I suggest you use Scarpin's Revellaspell before you go any further and lay yourself open to charges from the Rolfs of harassment, actual bodily harm and muggle baiting. And if you don't then I shall call in my cousin Draco and have you arrested. You bounty hunters are scum" she added scornfully.

The man flushed.

He did, however, prepare his wand.

"Careful" said Lydia "Make sure you say the incantation slowly and clearly so we know your intentions precisely."

He scowled; and repeated the words.

He looked bemused.

"But…. It says he's NOT a werewolf!" he said.

"Precisely" said Lydia coldly "As I told you; and as Mr Rolf had already told you. I suggest it would be better for your health to be as far away from here as is possible as soon as possible. Before I think of more legal ways to cause you grief. You were still here why?"

He took one look at her, face set with fury and scar blazing; and turned on his heel.

"Git" said Lydia "You all right, Mr Rolf, Madam Rolf?"

"Yes thank you, er, Lydia, isn't it?" said Rolf. "Very kind of you to intervene!"

"Does this happen often?" asked Lydia.

"No, fortunately! I had a little trouble at first; but that died down. Only now there's an official cure, until you can prove you've applied for it the werewolf hunters are busy hassling to see if you LIKE being a werewolf. And of course, there are still entries of me being a werewolf and of course I HAVEN'T applied because I already took the previous cure…."

"Hmmph" said Lydia "There's another werewolf too, works for Sirius Black, and of course Remus Lupin; I guess I'd better talk to Draco anyway and have him check that they ARE logged as cured, and you too."

"Thank you so much! Your whole family and Mr Fraser have been very good to me, and my family!" said Ulric Rolf sincerely.

"Well, being nice to each other is what makes the world go round, isn't it?" said Lydia dismissively. "You okay sprout?" to Kelly.

Kelly nodded wordlessly.

She was holding her own in the wizarding community as a sensitive, and now with a wizard for a stepfather felt much more a part of it; and definitely happier than in her previous much bullied existence! However, people like Malfoys DID rather make her feel a bit lost for words!

Lydia rejoined her friends and explained what had been happening.

"Gosh, is your father a relative to our Professor Snape then?" asked Mortimer.

"Oh yes, Romulus is my brother" said Lydia "Adoptive brother; all us older ones are adopted. Dad collected a selection of kids who were otherwise unwanted for some reason or other. Lilith's the oldest of us who's mum and dad's actual child but nobody really remembers or cares you know. It's a scream to us that Rom is also Professor Snape and we wind him up in the hols; which I can tell you now because you don't have to be all respectful at him any more. Dad's not teaching at Hogwarts anymore, he's head master in Prince Peak in Austria. My sister Jade's there. She's putting up for the Triwizard; will you? I would if it was at Hogwarts this time, but I'd have to do an awfully complex chant and dance to confund the Goblet of Fire to accept me under age and I'd never be able to persuade Professor Dumbledore to take me to Durmstrang to even try it" she said mournfully "Besides, you can bet your boots with the headmasters out of the school and supposedly the best warriors, Gerhardt and his minions will just LOVE to try an invasion of either us or Prince Peak!"

This necessitated an explanation about Odessa and its prince and his ambitions to control the English by controlling their education. Mortimer was shocked at what had already gone on; and said so.

"I suppose that's why our professors at the free school are so hard" he said. "Would it be wrong of me to have a shot at the Triwizard not stay as a defender?"

"Well if you're it, it's as much your duty to uphold the reputation of the English teaching system" said Lydia "And if you're not, our champion's going to need supporters there too, you know!"

"Well I guess I might" said Mortimer "Reckon if the free school was registered to be a part of it I'd be the champion of there right enough" he tried not to feel resentful.

"Yes, that's no doubt" said Polly speaking up for the first time "But really, would you feel comfortable when as yet you'd not really have any competition? After all, if you were chosen as a sixth school and then the other contestants knew much more than you, you'd feel you'd let your school down. And maybe you do know more than the French kids, say; but I wouldn't want to try for it even though I'm as hard at spells as most of the sixth you know; because I've been in education no longer than you and this is one TOUGH competition! In a few years, the free school might well be a contender and then it'll be all good; but if you want to try, reckon you ought to see what competition you're up against in just one other school."

"Harsh, Mortimer, but I'm afraid fair" said Lydia. "I guess you're used to being the tops; and don't let anyone tell you you're not good with five 'O' grade OWLs plus whatever other OWLs you have; but we have people who are taking six or seven NEWTs entering the Triwizard, and Dumbledore asked Lionel Dell to stay on a year to take two more NEWTs on top of the seven he just completed, five at 'O' two at 'E' so I've heard. Dumbledore wants Durmstrang COWED; and they did it with Viktor Krumm two competitions ago so it's not illegal. And in Prince Peak, Jade, m'sister, who's a year ahead of herself, could take on Lionel any day."

"We reckon any one of us – except maybe Polly because she's not ruthless enough – could lick any German or Frenchman in the competition and certainly any from Hellibore's Academy for Wankers" said Chad. "And we're only a little older than HARRY was when he got tricked into doing it. And actually I really would back Polly 'cos it's only Polly doubts herself at all."

"I do not doubt my ability!" squeaked Polly indignantly "I just think that I lack silly little bits of esoteric knowledge that make all the difference between just winning over these foreigners and doing it in style with – with aplomb and panache!"

"What she said" said Leo lazily. "Reckon in any school but Hogwarts you'd be in for a good shout, Mortimer; but you'll be with a tough group. A tough enough group to fight any dark wizards that decide to make our champion, whoever it is, a hostage."

Mortimer stared.

"I see" he said slowly "So chosen or no, I'd be a bodyguard….. serve a useful purpose."

"Quite" said Mad. "It's what we do. Mei's going in for it; and then we'll have one of OUR bloodgroup there and the rest to communicate with at school…..likewise Lionel will have HIS group back in England to back him and send warnings."

"It's a rather bigger matter than I'd realised" said Mortimer "And it ain't just about posh kids showing off how good they can hurl spells, is it?"

"No" said Mei "It's about overgrown adult German kids stamping their feet and hurling their toys out of the pram because they can't have what they want. And that's to rule the world. And while England keeps opposing them they're a bit stymied as to how to do that!"

Mortimer was suddenly feeling that he was entering a much bigger world than he even realised existed!

The Mad Marauders and Mortimer hung about Obscura Alley long enough to watch the auction on the Burke shop. Dimsie Burke had discussed with her father's factor that rather than sort out having a shopkeeper brought in, the sale of the shop would make sense; the proceeds to be invested carefully to pay for her and her brothers' education and any extra care her mother needed in St Mungo's Janus Thickey ward. Her father had been sentenced to fourteen to thirty years in Azkaban; and Dimsie considered herself the one in charge of the family now. And she did not want a shop, especially one with the sort of associations of wrong doing that this one had.

Lydia took a personal interest because Pete Prince Thomson was hoping to buy it – with Severus' sponsorship – to set up an apothecary's shop. An efficient one was needed in this neighbourhood; the brothers Grubbe who had sold some cures and a few dodgier potions were long since in Azkaban; and the existing apothecary was whispered to sample his own home brew.

Also bidding on the shop was Albert Jackman, who had left school that summer and whose forehead still said 'thief' under a thick layer of cosmetic cream from the sweeties he had stolen, cursed to react so if taken without permission. Fred – or George – Weasley was in the alley with samples of their new line of thief-proof-sweeties pointing at Jackman as an example, which was NOT improving his temper. What Jackman wanted with a shop nobody quite knew; but judging from his interest in buying it contents and all he was interested in being the new Borgin and Burke's purveyor of dodgy magical items.

As Dimsie Burke had already agreed that it was to be a sale of the shop only and that anything within it were to be handed over to Severus and Lucius to destroy or vet he would be disappointed; but that was yet to be made clear.

The Mad Marauders were glad to see fair play done; none of them trusted Jackman further than Polly could have kicked him without magic; and that he was likely to try to confund Pete they did not doubt.

He was taken aback and lost some interest when Dimsie's factor announced that the contents were not included within the sale; but the location of the shop was good, easy to reach for a wide range of clientele, not so far off the beaten track that more up market wizards would wholly shun it; and yet near enough the shadier ends of town to acquire shadier items.

Pete had spent long enough in Hogwarts to know Jackman; and to have acquired a personal enmity for him. Pete had acted as classroom assistant while he caught up the gaps in his knowledge then joined classes with Jackman's age group; and the comments from Jackman about having to be in school alongside a servant had been edifying about the boy's nature. It was true that Jackman had shut up – in a hurry – when Lionel Dell had apprised him of the fact that Pete was Professor Snape's cousin who had been held back by what he implied was illness to prevent Jackman sneering at Pete's poverty; but Pete already knew his true colours. Pete knew that cousin Severus would let him go to any sum to buy the shop to prevent Jackman getting it; and at least he had a rich enough wife to make that feasible! He settled back to the auction therefore without any need to get tense or concerned.

Had Dimsie known that Professor Snape had been interested on behalf of his cousin she would have made a private sale despite what her factor said; but it was too late now. At least she had agreed to make a private sale of any such items as he wanted to him; as well as having the darker ones dealt with without any further trouble from aurors.

Fred – or George – was joined by George – or Fred – who had an arm around Garjala.

The goblin girl had approached them as soon as she left school for a job in their factory producing such toys as those she had invented some years before. They had promptly made her head of research, given her a small facility and some staff and left her to get on with it. This level of trust had assuaged her father's wrath somewhat as he felt it a waste of a girl who had five good NEWTs – four of them being 'O' grade – to be wasting herself in a factory job. Making toys was always Garjala's ambition; and working alongside Fred and George – whom SHE could tell apart – had reminded her of another old ambition and it was rumoured that she had the intention of being Madam Weasley and that was with both.

Fred and George were, after all, closer than most twins, even finishing each other's sentences.

They had all convened to point and giggle at Jackman and put him off his stride; and maybe to bid as well.

"Hello small Snapeling – though actually not so small really, any more" said Fred – or George "Who's this Pete Thomson character, you any idea?"

"Yes he's my cousin and dad's putting up the spondulicks" said Lydia smiling primly "I think you'd do better waiting until the other apothecary is driven out of business by his excellence and have his shop instead; besides, he's nearer the ice cream vendor and that'd be a better location for your line of goods, wouldn't it?"

"By jove that IS a point" said George – or Fred. "Is it true the apothecary is Felix Fiend?"

"Come again?" asked Lydia "I thought he was supposed to be a drunkard."

"Oh, well he may be; but we heard he was a Felix fiend" said Fred – or George. "You look confused – and there was me thinking you Snapelings knew ALL the sordid business in town! You know Felix Felicis normally brings you luck, right?"

"Yes of course" said Lydia "I've helped brew it too."

"Which is more than most people can effectively. And there's two kinds of Felix Fiend; the ones who get to rely on taking Liquid Luck and start to poison their system they take so much of it; because if you take too high a dose or take it too often you start producing something like what Mackled Malaclaws produce in their venom in your own body when you DON'T take it; only then you take more, and in higher doses it's poisonous. That's the rich man's felix. The poorer man's felix – mind it still costs a bomb – is with the failed potion, you know, it makes people FEEL like they're invincible but it's a sham. And people just take that for the feel good factor because it's not got the embarrassing side effects the Elixir to induce Euphoria can have. It's one of those scandals that's kept pretty quiet; dad thinks at least three people in the ministry were being controlled by Deatheaters by blackmail over their habit. I guess they only didn't ask Severus to brew some because Severus is notoriously full of integrity over his potioneering."

"More likely they didn't want to owe him a favour" said Lydia cynically "Yaxley was in charge of subverting the ministry as I recall; owe dad a favour? I don't think so!" she was profoundly shocked at such misuse of the king of all potions!

"Well you're probably right at that" said George – or Fred. "Sorry to dash all your illusions Lydia! But you need to know these things I guess."

"I do" said Lydia grimly, glancing at her equally shocked friends "We all do. I'll let the rest of the Blood group know."

"You'll probably find Harry and Draco as aurors already do" said Fred – or George. "They'll assume Sev knows and told the rest of you I suppose."

Lydia was pretty certain this was something her father did NOT know; and resolved to contact him as soon as she might send a blood throb to request mind-to-mind communication.

He needed to be aware; even if looking for antidotes for a self-induced poisoning was not a priority.

Jackman, already rattled by being pointed and giggled at by various people was moved to turn on taunting and abuse by children he already loathed and the urchin they seemed to have made friends with; and Pete quickly put in another bid, and by the time Jackman finished telling the Snape brat what he would like to do to her, the gavel had come down.

He was serenaded by a collective seven-strong raspberry as he realised what had happened.

A job well done, the Mad Marauders and Mortimer wandered off in deep content to reward themselves with ices and to go on a tour of the rest of the Umbrous Lane complex under Mortimer's guidance.

Lydia had mollified him over that by pointing out that any of them might end up teaching here too and it would be a good idea to know the problems faced by the inhabitants as much as needing to know the vices of the rich like Felix abuse.

Mortimer was fairly well known; and known to take no shit, and so avoided by any who counted themselves hard enough in the normal way to hassle pretty and well dressed girls.

One half Goblin boy did make a few comments about how much Lydia would fetch hired out by the quarter hour; and Lydia walked smilingly up to him, kneed him painfully, nutted him as he bent forward and rabbit punched the back of his neck.

"Don't make comments like that about me again" she said smiling sweetly.

Mortimer was much impressed.

So was Leo.

He had been about to jump the boy himself but Chad had grabbed his arm and muttered 'better if she does'.

It certainly shamed the boy far more to be taken down by a girl!

The kids here could all do with feeding up.

Lydia had never seen such poverty; but she had seen the same sorts of faces, from when they had been in the orphanage; the looks of oppressed hopelessness.

She swallowed hard.

"I think" she said "I need to share something with people who don't know; have you got somewhere we can go, Mortimer?"

He nodded, bemused.

They returned to the school building and sat in the kitchen, with Diccy the head school elf making cocoa as Lydia told about the orphanage Krait had grown up in looking after Jade and her until Severus had taken them out. She described how the scars on Krait's back and Jade's counted as cursed wounds although inflicted by muggles; and how the looks in the faces of the worst oppressed in Umbrous Place North had recalled to her the faces both in the mirror and all around.

Her bloodkin were sending love and support; and Mortimer was horrified.

The idea that a posh kid like this – so beautiful a little doll of a creature too – should have suffered like that seemed wrong; and indeed it seemed almost worse than the situation of just about everyone he knew!

He reached out a tentative hand; and Lydia took it.

"I dunno what to say" he said.

She smiled tremulously.

"You said it in offering support" she said. "I had to tell you what I was being weak over; I don't have nightmares now, and it doesn't scare me any more – a boggart is just a boggart – but I get upset and angry when I see that look, specially when I know there's not a lot I can do without a lot of preparation and having to wait. You know."

The others made murmurs of assent.

"We feel the same, Lydia; only we don't know enough to recognise it the way you do" said Leo staunchly "We may not know about it the way you do, but we still want to fight it!"

"And it's like a sort of slavery!" squeaked Polly "And I'm not the first person to say so, 'cos the SAS, Roger Blake's Society Against Slavery says so too, that being kept hopeless in a bad situation is a slavery of the mind!"

"And we'll all fight it" said Mei "And THAT's what's being Marauders is about; fighting all injustice whether it's made by tyrants or just by the injustices in the system!"

Mortimer said nothing; but he was certainly being drawn to the idea of being a Marauder!


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The next meeting of the Mad Marauders and Mortimer was for the purpose of purchasing their NEWT level books in Diagon alley; and Leo was bursting with the news that all the blood-joined had a good idea about anyway that his sister had given birth to a daughter.

Hawke had already told Mortimer, as his ward; and Mortimer had the kudos of having held small Leona Pardis.

The others had also met the other new babies to the Malfoy twins, Abraxus' twins with Myrtle, Arthur and Erica. It meant another Erica Malfoy; but then, it was Myrtle's middle name and at least the first Erica would be out of school before this babe was anywhere near school age. For this reason the new babe was to be Erica Daphne – another good shrub as Myrtle said – and that would distinguish her.

The Malfoy twins had laughed that Hogwarts would be knee deep in Malfoys in the year those three entered; since their sister Morgan was expecting again for October, and that was twins too, not to mention Finn carrying her first baby for Lucius and Narcissa having managed a little boy at last at the end of the Summer term, her little Scorpius after three girls. And Tanjela was also expecting again, twins again too. As Merope Snape was as Malfoy as her mother that could mean ten Malfoys, a whole house complement. And Lydia pointed out that as Prince Victor had Malfoy blood, there was an eleventh in his daughter Franziska, unless she went to Prince Peak.

"And the combined efforts of the Princes and the Blacks aren't so bad either" she said "'cos there's Alphard from Willow, Hilary's expecting again with cousin Alexander's, Leona and Merope count there too, Leona as a Black and Merope as a Prince and Petunia Dursley's mother is a Black."

"And Ginny expecting twins to make sure of having the odd Potter to keep them on track" laughed Leo. "They're girls and they're going to call them Frederica and Georgina. Just to keep up the tradition."

"The school will fall" said Lydia with conviction.

This had to be celebrated; so they promptly set to work to make a sign to set up in Diagon Alley for the edification of all visiting wizards. And Mei who was best at enchanting, enchanted their paint brush to sign it in the hand writing of Mary-Anne's mother's boyfriend.

It read,

_"ACHTUNG! In the interests of standardisation for the ease of magical transport all wizards and witches are now to be of standard sizes. Those wizards who are too tall will be lopped down and their excess substance added to the legs of those who are too short. Be ready for specially trained ministry inspectors who will be feeling the bosoms of all witches to see if they conform to standard size ranges. By order!"_

The Mad Marauders fell about laughing over this effort; and Mortimer was becoming even keener on joining them!

But NOT until he had shown that he could stand on his own two feet at school!

Mortimer was not to be the only new one at school of course; it was a whole new school year with a whole new intake of new ones, who were staring about in awe and some trepidation at all the bigger kids getting new year's books, greeting friends, surreptitiously jinxing enemies and undertaking all the usual activities of Diagon Alley in the second half of August. Those who were fortunate had siblings or relatives to go with; and small Jingjie Chang thought himself very lucky indeed to have his big cousins Mei and Ming to show him about a bit – and to be duly introduced to such lordly beings as prefects like Leo Black Weasley and Mad Lockhart and their friends. Dumbledore tried to make one male and one female prefect where possible in the fifth; so Chad had to swallow his disappointment that it had been Mad who was picked; and Lydia and Polly that it was Lydia's cousin Julia Malfoy who no-one could deny was the steadiest Gryffindor in the fifth. Mei was already a prefect and had declared that if Dumbledore ever made her brother a prefect he'd need his head examined.

This was partly because Ming had been to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and had acquired the newest clockwork toy, the automatic robe roller, that was attached stealthily to the bottom of the robe of the unsuspecting victim whereupon it rolled it up revealing what – if anything – was being worn beneath.

Mei had forbidden him ever to use it on her or her friends on pain of her writing to Argus Filch to apprise him of it ahead of time to ban.

Jingjie had both found it funny and found enough compassion to pity any victim within his better self and declined to buy any for himself.

There were four other weevils that the Mad Marauders were anticipating knowing; Nathan Malfoy; another Weasley cousin; Tobala Gan Torlo, sister of Gorbrin's friend Jardak; and U-May Naga, ward of Professor Assim Khan, otherwise known as Stripes, and already blooded in by the efforts of Bella Black.

Nathan Malfoy was as like to Draco to look at, at the same age as made no odds; slender, pale, with a pointed chin and big smoky grey eyes. He firmly wore his hair the same way too; Malfoys hung together and Nathan just about hero worshipped his big brother Draco, and indeed had pretty much forgotten that he was in fact Draco's cousin not brother. He was doing the rounds with Tobala, while Jardak went off with Gorbrin and his best friend Meliandra.

"You'd better be in Slytherin, Malfoy" said Leo when the Marauders met up with them "I've seen you play quidditch; with Gorbrin and Zajala and you we have half a prayer of actually beating the Ravers."

Nathan beamed.

"I was planning on playing chaser for my house if whoever's games pre will have me" he said.

"Lionel Dell's taking over because Kate Rosier's Head of House; Dell told me" said Leo. "He's still to play Keeper, Kate and Mel as Beaters, you Phil Burke and Zajala as chasers I reckon and Gorbers as seeker."

Nathan giggled.

"He HATES it when Jade calls him Gorbers, I think you really shouldn't" he said.

"Okay, I shan't" said Leo equably "I hate it when I get excited and stutter and people make something of it."

He left Nathan and Tobala teaming up with Isambard Cooper – apparently they had met – and decided not to hear in his prefect's deaf ear when the phrase 'Weasley's Wizard Wheezes' came rapidly into the conversation.

Taking Garjala on was likely to be one of the most profitable things the twins ever did; if they ever were able to come out of hiding after putting themselves on the death lists of incalculable numbers of parents and professors!

The Weasley child, Magnus, was the oldest of his family, technically another Black-Weasley save that they did not trouble with the double barrel. Septimus Weasley and Cedrella Black had had eight children, one daughter and seven sons and many of them had also displayed the fecundity for which the Weasley males were legendary. Magnus' father had five siblings; and if Magnus himself had only four to date, that seemed something that was quite likely to change. He was as red haired as any Weasley, an ordinary looking little boy who smiled cheerily at anyone who looked at all forthcoming. Leo pointed him at the Malfoy boy and friends; who had just found Walter Crabbe, brother of Victor Crabbe and cousin of Wilfrid in the fourth, who had thought it funny to hurt a beggar child. He held up a galleon and when the child ran over for it, laid it on her hand, making it red hot as he did so with magic.

The child was howling in agony, her hand in her armpit as Walter roared with laughter.

Nathan, Tobala and Isambard had gone to the little girl first; Nathan swiped Crabbe's wand to heal the horrific burn first then threw it back contemptuously as they comforted her.

"Mum'll see you all right" said Nathan kindly. Charlotte would soon get to the bottom of how come a child was begging and sort things out.

Crabbe pointed his wand.

"You haven't got yours yet!" he taunted, loosing the stinging hex. "Gobbo lovers and cissies deserve anything they get!"

Nathan had not; but his big brother was not an auror for nothing; and he knew well enough how to get a protective charm up without needing a wand to do it. Tobala promptly nutted Crabbe in the midriff.

At which point Leo turned up with Magnus.

"Illegal wand use, weevil?" said Leo with all the authority of a prefect "TRY not to get expelled before you even get to school; awfully bad form you know."

"He's a bully, Leo" said Nathan.

"And a racist" put in Tobala

"And really rather a nasty piece of work" Isambard was not to be left out.

"Well, that you weevils will have to try to sort out for yourselves" said Leo "If I hear him making racist comments I'll give him the prefect's punishment for it; but I can't go fishing you out of trouble. You seem to have subdued him nicely so far, carry on the same way, if I catch you jinxing him I'll set you an impot. This is Magnus; as you can guess he's a Weasley, Black-Weasley but more Weasley than Black TRY not to get him into too much trouble."

Nathan, Tobala and Isambard regarded Magnus thoughtfully.

"C'mon, we have a kid to take to my mum then let's talk japes" said Nathan.

Leo made sure they were out of sight before he took his thoughtful gaze off the Crabbe boy.

This then was the kid who had, by all accounts, so soured Victor Crabbe that his unacceptable behaviour had got him expelled. Leo had heard that this was a spoiled baby; and, it seemed, cruel into the bargain. Lovely little would-be deatheater in the making! Leo determined – if the kid fetched up in his own house as seemed likely – to keep a very close eye on this one.

U-may was excited; now she was to be in school with Bella and Mimi and the others!

"Oh mighty guardian" she asked, bowing deeply to Assim Khan "Is it likely to be permitted one day that I might call you 'most honoured father'?"

Assim regarded her with heavy lidded gaze.

"Is your wish, Oh oldest flower of my household, that you should be my daughter then?"

"It is my dearest wish, Oh most dread and wonderful guardian" said U-may.

"Supposing I wanted to have you grow up more English and call me 'daddy'?" asked Assim who had been struck by the close and loving relationship between Severus and his children.

U-may gasped.

"Oh honoured one, being English will please me very well, if such is your wish!"

Assim held out his arms; and she ran to him. He was purring deep in his chest.

"Think you that Purnima will like me to be her daddy too?"

U-may nodded vigorously.

"She doesn't remember her real parents; and mine didn't want me when they found I was a Parselmouth. YOU want us both!"

"I do, my daughter. I do" said Assim softly. "And Bella will be my bride one day; but somehow I think if you ever tried to call her 'mother' she would cuff you in the English fashion with two fingers to the back of the head in gentle rebuke."

U-may giggled.

"Yes I expect she would!" she agreed.

In Diagon Alley U-may also attached herself to Nathan and his growing band; she had been to Malfoy Manor to meet him at Bella's invitation and Nathan had been glad to meet up with a fellow weevil. He was expecting to meet Jingjie Chang soon too, for Gorbrin had told him about his friend Ming's cousin.

They had a respectable number to band together against the likes of Walter Crabbe anyway.

The Changs ran into the Pippins, cousins of the Spikenards.

Salvia Pippin pulled an agonised face, unusual for one so usually calm and on top of things.

"Mei, I'm praying that you get my latest cousin in YOUR house" she said "Lavender and Rosemary are mostly harmless, m'brother doesn't mind sharing a class with them but Hazel, their little sister! Ouch!"

"What's wrong with her that we should have to have her foisted on us?" asked Mei mildly, knowing that this was just Salvia's way of sounding off and not personal attack on Ravenclaws. After all, another cousin, Daphne Spikenard, was a Ravenclaw in Mad and Chad's year, the other fifth form prefect and guilty of little more than being a dead bore.

"She's a seer" Salvia shuddered.

"That ought to please your grandmother" said Mei "I thought you were disappointed that you weren't and felt you let her down?"

"Yes well, there's a difference between having some ability in divination and being a SEEHRess" said Salvia, emphasising the word. "Hazel does the actual trance crap and she doesn't half think a lot of herself for it; and she takes herself FAR too seriously. She's a bit like I heard old Madam Trelawney was like, always POSITIVE she's right in the way she reads people. And expects to be treated tenderly for her trances when she has them. And I think they're genuine enough; if she was faking it to get attention I could be sorry for her. But she's middle aged! At eleven!"

"Crumbs, she does sound a bit of a traditional Raver, doesn't she?" said Mei with devastating candour. "Sounds like we should sick her onto Amos Leroy and let them bore each other."

Salvia laughed.

"Oh THANK you Mei, that's the first thing I've found funny since I realised she was up this year! If she is in your house, will you try to protect her from herself? And your brother?"

"I'll do my best" said Mei, cautiously. "Unless she pisses me off so thoroughly I withdraw protection long enough to teach her a solid lesson."

"Well can't say fairer than that; ta" said Salvia.

Bella Black and her gang hastened round as fast as they could – they had arranged for Smiths to have the books for their electives sorted out to save time – so they could lay in wait for, and pounce on the child named Charis Rawlins as soon as she arrived. And as soon as someone was addressed 'Madam Rawlins' they duly pounced.

The child thus surrounded by five much older girls, one an elf, was startled but managed to look self possessed.

"Charis Rawlins?" demanded Bella.

"That's me. I don't think I know you."

"No; but you will, everybody does" said Bella "Even the teachers we don't have. I'm Bella, these are Mimi, Drusilina, Maud and Isabel. And we wanted to tell you how much we tremendously admired your grandfather and his foster parents and how clever it was to make a film to cover the substitutiary locomotion that I've forgotten the real name for, 'cos we used the words from the film to get the castle armour dancing not last year but the year before and we sort of got in trouble and got praised in the same sentence by The McGonagall who teaches transfigurations 'cos she said we shouldn't have been able to use a made up incantation to get them going."

"It's in belief structures" said Mimi "we believed in it hard enough so it worked."

"Crumbs" said Charis "That's rather impressive. How did you know about me?"

"Simple" said Bella "Madam McGonagall told us it was based on truth and that it was a ministry cover-up so we poked around the records to find Charlie Rawlins and what girl he most had detentions with, and things and then the next lot of Rawlins kids and so on. We used past copies of the Prophet too in the hatch, match and dispatch columns. And you're my cousin, kinda, if he DID marry Elizabeth Hitchens, 'cos Hitchens are a branch of the Black family. Leonard Hitchens and Peter Hitchens are in the lower sixth and the fourth respectively in Ravenclaw, they're okay. I should think you might be a Gryffindor though."

"My family seem to be" said Charis cautiously.

"Maud and me are Gryffs" said Isabel "The other three are Slythers; Slythers and Gryffs work a lot better these days than when your parents were up."

"And we're the Belle Marauders" said Bella "your dad and mum were younger than the original Marauders and I guess they might have thought they were prats but WE take Marauding a lot more seriously; and my cousin Sirius who's one of the original Marauders recognises they could have done better and helps us not to be prats. And they DID all fight Voldemort of course. We've got protégés who are weevils – first years– so if we introduce you to them, it's a friend to start with for both of you 'cos they only know boys otherwise."

"Well I don't know anything about Marauders but I can ask mum and dad" said Charis "And I think it's an excellent idea to start off with friends, assuming we hit it off all right. Still, it's all so exciting, I should think we have that in common. Are these girls relatives of one of you?"

"No we found one being kept almost as a slave in India" said Bella "And she's really nice; she has a WICKED tongue too. And she's bound to get up to mischief. The other one is the younger sister of our Gorbrin's best friend, she's clever and resourceful, you aren't racist against Goblins and elves are you? And you DO plan to get up to mischief don't you?"

"I can't say I'd thought about it" said Charis " I never met any goblins or elves before. Is Mimi an elf?"

"Yes, and if you've never thought about it that's good because you don't have any preconceived ideas about how to be racist" said Bella. "You can have a lot of fun if you all work together."

"Well as to getting into mischief, I guess it depends on why" said Charis "It seems silly just to get in trouble for the sake of it."

"Partly to have fun" said Bella "But really to hone our skills so when we get old enough to fight evil and save the country from dark wizards we've got the ability and the chutzpah to do it. You don't get to be a fighter against evil sitting at a desk with a shining morning face growing good."

"I suppose not!" Charis was struck by that.

She was claimed at this moment by her fond mama who gave the older girls a rather uncertain smile and proceeded to bombard her offspring with questions; which Charis seemed to accept with a calm aplomb.

"Hmm, can't make up my mind if she's all right or not" frowned Bella.

"She's like Isabel and Drusillina" said Maud "Kinda calm and collected on the outside; but I think she's all right really."

The Madams Malfoy – all four of them – were meanwhile finding out about the child beggar.

The ascertained that her name was Bathsheba – she was a little uncertain about any more than that – and that she had five younger siblings except that the baby was dying because mother had died and baby didn't eat food that was put in front of her and dad sent them all out to beg so he could get enough booze and buy food if there was any over.

Bathsheba was eight, she thought.

The Madams Malfoy were not sure whether to be more appalled at her ignorance over how a new baby should eat or over the behaviour of a father who seemed to ignore his offspring other than as a means to bring in enough money to feed his drink habit.

The first purchase was baby milk from Hubble and Sterr; then the witches swept Bathsheba off to her poky apartment right at the other end of Lemuria Lane where they proceeded to take over, feed the baby – and Narcissa left Charlotte in charge while she apparated the child to St Mungo's for proper medical rehydration – sort the children out and take them firmly away from the drunken lump that snored naked in the main room.

How much magical ability there was likely to be in them was perhaps debateable; but the Madams Malfoy, discovering a need in society, had just expanded the crèche to become an orphanage, and as it was associated with the free school, now starting to make a reputation as a good place with all right people, children were less afraid to go there.

When Narcissa returned, she and Finn took the lot of them to the capable care of the three women who ran the place. The fourth and fifth children might have enough ability to end up on scholarship to Hogwarts; the rest were too low in talent to be worth a scholarship unless they developed any other talent like music or art; and frankly it seemed highly unlikely from such parentage, for from what Bathsheba said, their mother was not talented either and put up with being beaten without even using defensive spells.

They just left the inadequate father be.

He would be unlikely to go looking in Obscura Alley for his missing children; he would just have to fend for himself.

And the child Bathsheba would have to learn that she had to put herself and her siblings first for once and her father a long way down the list; for he was not worth her concern.

It has to be said that the various offspring and etceteras that the Madams Malfoy were escorting down Diagon Alley were most put out at having missed the chance to interfere. It has also to be said that the reason Gorbrin and his friend Meliandra were not around was because they had caught sight of one of the targets of their dossier-compiling and had been tailing him! Most of those they had kept notes on had already been rounded up in the sweeps against those who did goblin coursing – Lucius had been much relieved since he did not want the amateur detectives to get themselves into danger – but there were still those who disliked goblins who would not go that far.

It provided hours of harmless fun for the two children and helped to make sure that their targets knew that Lucius – as they thought – still had an eye on them. The two were getting better at shadowing, however; and picked up a lot of knowledge that their targets were NOT aware of. And which might prove useful one day.

Their target today apparently owned property in Tangent Court; and was doing his own rent collection. Meliandra and Gorbrin picked up that he refused to let apartments to goblins; and that he encouraged his more racist tenants too to make life uncomfortable for goblin neighbours.

Armed with a pen that could take down words spoken at a distance – invented by Willow and now a part of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes once Garjala had heard the idea and passed it on – they kept verbatim notes.

They would need more paper and parchment for school but such was life. This was important!

Nathan had done what was necessary in passing on Bathsheba to his mothers' excellent care; he WAS interested but felt himself not yet equal to doing such things for himself.

He was sure he would learn.

Meantime he at least was content to learn about it from more of a distance.

Erica might have liked to have gone and helped; but her time would come and Erica was an obedient little body content to watch her siblings as she was told. She knew that one day she would be a part of her mothers' organisation doing social work; as did the twins Griselen and Genavka, and they already knew plenty. Zajala was determined to separate herself from poverty.

It was understandable enough; and neither Lucius nor the mothers blamed her in the least, so long as she never went far enough to be callous to the troubles of others.

Ian too preferred still to stand back; it was Bella who liked to be in the thick of everything!

But she had chosen to spend her time finding the Rawlins child; and so missed all the excitement. Still, it was traditional for Marauders to go poking after trouble in the holidays; and Bella fondly hoped that soon her group of Marauders would be allowed to do so!

It has to be said that it was the fault of the overfed crup that the fight started.

Crups, resembling forked tailed Jack Russel dogs who were loyal to wizards and aggressive towards muggles, were in the opinion of some of the wizarding community – notably Krait and satellites – almost as bad as Hagrid's blast-ended pekes.

The overstuffed magical dog growled at Charlotte; and Nathan's cat, a feisty lilac point Siamese who sounded enough like a violin to have probably originated from a transfiguration exam, hurled himself upon the offending creature.

Narcissa broke up the fight with an _aguamenti_ spell, enabling Nathan to leap on his pet, named Machiavelli, while the witch gathered her pampered crup to her.

"Nasty little beast you have there" said Narcissa coldly "You should muzzle it if it can't leave the familiars of new kids alone."

"My Popsy NEVER goes for cats! You must have a squib or a muggle with you!" said the witch.

"Oh, ill trained is it? Or are you one of these types that LIKES setting crups on muggles? With muggle born likely to be in Diagon Alley, if you know your mutt is likely to misbehave you should stay away from the place when it's a new year, what's your name? I've half a mind to write to the ministry suggesting you have your licence to own a magical beast revoked if you can't act responsibly!"

The witch paled.

"I – I must have got the date wrong" she said "I – I think I'll be leaving now."

Narcissa gave her a hard eyed stare.

"Do" she said "And be aware if I ever see you here again at this time of year or letting your mutt anywhere near muggles I WILL follow it up. It's people like you that cause unrest."

The witch beat a hasty retreat.

Baiting the muggle parents of the muggle born might have seemed a fun idea but having her beloved Popsy taken from her by the Ministry at the request of this VERY expensive witch was a lot less fun!

Getting a licence to own a crup or a kneazle was NOT a given; and any complaints were taken seriously by the ministry!

The Mad Marauders meanwhile were enjoying the impact of their poster.

People took posters of ministry regulations seriously; though there had been a lot less in the way of foolish or oppressive new laws enacted since the new government had taken over – despite the best efforts of various ministry departments to introduce regulations without government sanction in their own fields of influence – there was still a wariness.

By the time they had read the notice all the way through most people were aware it was a hoax and were laughing in relief as much as amusement. A few stupider ones were worrying about what this directive meant for them.

Kindlier people enlightened them; less kind did not.

Some people almost asked to be taken for a wind up.

A few coarse comments were thrown over the second half of the notice; and someone called out the suggestion of opening a book on it being Lucius Malfoy who would be the highly trained inspector of bosoms.

"No takers!" called someone else "I never bet on certainties!"

It was a very successful jape; one that half caught people until they had realised its whole, and then afforded amusement to those caught as well as to those who had set it up. The best sort of jape there was. And those who took it seriously could scarcely have been anticipated, surely, by any reasonable person, so their distress was NOT bullying.

And the tall wizard running hither and thither in a welter of flailing arms and legs sobbing was pretty soon told by other, less mentally challenged, people not to make a fool of himself.

Severus was right.

Nine people out of ten WERE moronic given half a chance.

"Reckon the group around Nathan might make another generation of Marauders?" asked Lydia, watching the giggling and racially mixed bunch jostle happily on the way into Fortescue's for ice cream.

"There's a strong possibility" said Mei clinically. "Jingjie knows a little; I wouldn't tell him too much but he's got a higher sense of responsibility than Ming. Ming might have made a Marauder but he'd have to settle down a bit."

"I think he will" said Lydia "He's just bored because he's so clever. But it's Gorbrin and co he goes around with more than our lot. You know, we might bring that lot into the blood group without being necessarily Marauders as such; sort of back up. Like David and Ellie aren't Marauders but they are warriors."

"That's a good point" said Chad.

"It's rude to point, it's a good blunt" said Mad.

Chad poked him absently. It was an old joke.

"Well, we'll watch them" said Leo. "Who is it, Nathan, Isambard, Tobala, U-may, Magnus and Jingjie. Six strong; but then so are we, and maybe seven. There's no rules on that."

"The original marauders were four because it was the three sworn to keep Remus' secret and help him" said Lydia. "There can be no rules about a band of brothers sworn to fight evil. The Young Marauders were a bit er, many headed and mutable; Harry, Ron and Hermione were the core, but mum came along and kinda bound herself, Draco and Neville to them too. And dad became an original Marauder, and so is Stripes Khan now. It's just the way it goes; and whatever way it goes, if it feels right it is right."

The others nodded.

That was the way Marauders operated.

And it worked.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Lionel declared that he was going to sit on the train not wait to whip in weevils and Weasleys; and Ross Tuthill grinned.

"Poor old man that you are and it being beyond you these days! I suppose someone of your geriatric attainments deserves a rest!"

Lionel grinned.

"Damn right!" he agreed, refusing to rise. "I'll be there if you need me old man" he added seriously, touching his young friend lightly on the shoulder.

Ross nodded. He appreciated that.

He would have at least the backup of a prefect's badge, for he was one of the new Lower Sixth prefects, together with Arjelan. The two fifth formers in Gryffindor were steady too, Julia and Stuart; but not in their particular group. He was, too, wondering for whom to vote as head of school as Lionel was standing down for this extra year of his; Alice Weasley was head of Gryffindor, and a good house head; Kate Rosier had shown her leadership to be solid as head of games in Slytherin for years. Rupert Granville in Hufflepuff was as steady as they came, and yet quite happy to get into trouble if he felt it warranted – he had fought well against the erklings – and Francesca Longbottom in Ravenclaw too had led her quidditch team and shown sensible characteristics.

On the whole, Ross liked Fran for the job. She was almost Gryffindorish in her sense of honour and she never let a problem go if once she had started to pursue it.

Well, the prefects would debate that; and vote appropriately. There was less of a clear choice this year than for previous heads of school, but that was life.

Any one of them would do a fair job; and not one of them would shirk it the way the other three had wanted to when Lionel was chosen Head Boy.

Hogwarts had been spoiled by some outstanding heads over the last few years. The prefects might just have to work a little harder this year.

Which would do nobody any harm.

Ross smiled at the new sixth former.

He had been told to expect Mortimer Bane; and wished him every good luck, having had a rather irregular entry into the wizarding world himself.

The lad was being seen off by a couple of friends.

Bjorn and Valerie had been Mortimer's cohorts since before the free school opened; and they were going to miss him. Valerie indeed had almost made it to Hogwarts herself; and Bjorn had the ability to work hard enough. They had each achieved a few OWLs, and the Professors had made sure to let them know how proud they were; for Valerie had achieved five OWLs and Bjorn had three; and Professor Longbottom had suggested to them that they stay on at the free school to take one or two NEWTs alongside a few more OWLs and then consider teaching there themselves.

This had been attractive; Valerie and Bjorn knew that neither had the talent to be able to get a highly paid job in the ministry or Gringott's; leaving animal handling really their best option. Teaching, however, in the subjects that did not require high talent, was attractive. Bjorn was good with animals; he did not smell of bear unless rage moved him to change form and Bjorn was very easy going. Valerie had a green thumb; and that might mean she could even relieve Ellie at Prince Peak who did NOT enjoy teaching herbology and was begging Severus to let her teach Comparative Magic instead, her favourite subject. And one Severus wanted to introduce! And Sephara too wanted to give up teaching and be a full time mother, which Neville could not fault. Especially as she had suggested instead running an introductory class for the local children with basic literacy and numeracy skills for the illiterate and innumerate; and a midday meal as well. This much Mortimer had some idea of; for the Malfoy twins and his new Marauder friends chatted freely in front of him about what various professors they knew socially had said.

He had not said much to his friends Bjorn and Valerie and felt a little disloyal; but it would put too much pressure on them to succeed and that was not fair either.

Besides, he had to leave them to stand on their own feet; which he was sure they would do adequately. As he must do as well.

He smiled back at the jolly, snub-nosed boy. It was a tentative smile; but he managed.

"Bane? Tuthill" said Ross. "We'll have a few classes in common I believe; always nice to meet a fellow arithmancer, we're a rare breed." He grinned "Actually it's a large class this year; nine, can you believe, one of the biggest ever, Madam Vector's almost having conniptions, she reckons it's a good year when she has more than four and only two took it last year!"

"I guess a lot of people find it tough" said Mortimer, shocked that a big school like Hogwarts should still find it acceptable to teach a class as small as two.

"Yes; that's why it's so valuable to have as a skill" said Ross "And NOT dependant on great wand work, so you'd think more squibs and near squibs would try to get their heads round it; even an OWL in Arithmancy is a highly paid job and a NEWT gets them queuing up for you, especially now there's chanting to put with it… are you taking chanting?"

"As an OWL….and the new Metalworking"

He waited for some comment about his part goblin features.

Ross merely grinned.

"Oh that's going down well! I half thought about it myself, but I don't have an OWL in enchanting – never could get my head around it – and I figured, well I'm already taking a new NEWT in terms of the Chanting, and other NEWTs so don't overstretch yourself, Ross boy, because I AIN'T as clever as m'sister and I'd rather concentrate on the good grades of what I am taking, y'know? My girl friend's taking four NEWTs and quite content with that, leave people like Mei Chang and m'sister to do seven with or without extra OWLs. If it had been offered last year, I might have talked very fast to study enchanting without taking the OWL…. Still, everything has to have a first time, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, guess so" said Mortimer. "Who else is taking it? Not I guess that the names'll mean anything."

"Oh, Arjelan and Cholaka, they're part of our set, and Grigs – Gregory – who's an item with Cholaka, Leonard Hitchens and a couple from the fifth, and as Lionel's stayed on just to do the Chanting NEWT he's taking it for fun because he reckons you can never learn too much….he's right of course but maybe I can learn part time later in life. You never stop learning!"

"Oh I know a couple of the fifth who are taking it, Lydia and Leo" said Mortimer.

"Oh, you know the Marauders? Always handy" grinned Ross "We all sort of look out for each other, them and our set….you'll learn all the names soon enough. Looks like you make good chums" he nodded to Bjorn and Valerie. "Decent friends don't make jealous; you make sure and invite ALL your friends to knock around together in the hols, huh?"

Mortimer nodded.

"Bjorn and Val hope to teach" he blurted out.

"Crumbs! The courageous squad!" said Ross, grinning at the pair. "I have WAY too many younger siblings to ever want to teach; I know what they're like."

"We can give back to the free school what it give to us" said Valerie.

"Yeah; that's honour" said Ross, holding out a hand to shake of each. "Reckon the Mad Marauders are going to want to get to know you two. What about you Mortimer? Are you planning to teach?"

"I hadn't really thought I'm afraid" said Mortimer. "I just want to do well; and then my options are open."

Ross nodded.

"Likewise" he said. "I'm no auror; but I might go for the Quaestorium. Or as a freelance curse breaker. Or go into research in the electrical interference office. Technically they're Unspeakables but far crazier and more laid back than others in the Department of Mysteries. Hello, here come crowds and hordes of brats; catch up with you later!"

There were a selection of quidditch arguments going on in the middle school with Gorbrin declaring to all and sundry that if they had behaved so badly as the teams in the world cup, Red Card Rolanda – Madam Hooch by rights – would have applied to the headmaster for the use of heavy whip in training; and Mei Chang had grabbed the collar of young Jack Murray and said,

"Look here, young Murray, I'm head of games with Fran as head of house, and though I'm inclined to give you a chance this year, if you even CONSIDER cobbing as blatantly as La Mariposa you'd be right off the team again, however much you may admire her techniques!"

Murray had been holding forth about the skills of the Brazilian seeker; and Mei wanted to make sure that he was not about to emulate some of her more dubious skills; excessive elbow use was never acceptable!

The Belle Marauders collected Charis Rawlins and the other Weevils they were looking out for and demanded a full and true story of the tale that had become 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks'. Charis obliged cheerfully enough; it was family folklore and she had not been forbidden to talk of it to wizarding folk. In fact she had told Great Grandmother Eglantine about the kids who managed to get the film ritual to work for them; and the old witch had been amazed and suggested that these were people from whom Charis might learn much!

Disappointed as the children were to learn that the Island of Naboombu was entirely fictional, it was no real surprise after all! The artefact on which the incantation for _Piertotem locomotor_ – the true name of the spell 'substitutiary locomotion' – had required an equally bizarre but, for a children's tale less exciting search and a rather ignominious theft from a small local museum. The book that CHARLIE had bought had been a children's History of Hogwarts and had told of the protective spells that covered it.

It was fascinating; and very satisfying to know the true background!

"The Ministry took the bed away of course" said Charis sadly "And Great Grandmother Eglantine and Great Grandad Cornelius having to convince them that they were self trained and never knew any law! It came, like a lot of the stuff did, like 'A child's History of Hogwarts' from Portobello Road, where it fetched up from, so far as we know, a house in a place called Orme Court."

"Oh I know all about Orme Court!" said Bella "It's in Bayswater and it used to be stiff with Slytherin types but they all started dying out. My cousins found a load of stuff in a muggle car boot sale from a house there and their dad put in an offer on the whole thing, junk and all, right away; and other relatives have bought up houses as muggle descendants sell them off. It's going wizarding again."

"Oh we live nearby in Salem Road" said Charis.

"Well how's about that! You're neighbours of half my cousins and never knew it!" said Bella. "Well any sibs and cousins you have will come up to school knowing people, anyway! That's just grand!"

Meanwhile the train had come to an abrupt halt.

Ross swallowed hard. He was now train prefect; it was his job to go up to the front and find out what was wrong.

Lionel could not resist joining him.

Boarding the train were the resplendently robed aurors, Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter.

"Hello old man, young – Tuthill, isn't it? Prefect already? Where does time go!" said Draco "By your indulgence we have to search the train."

"Your word that it is necessary I'll accept implicitly" said Lionel "You heard then that I refused to let Dawlish on?"

"Yes, he was carrying on something rotten back in the office, trying to find someone to complain to, and Alastor not being any help – Alastor never liked him, good taste, Alastor – and getting more and more purple. Funniest thing! Thing is we got a tip off that there's an Odessa agent on the train hiding in animal form; you're a trainee, want to come along?"

"Yes please sir" said Lionel "Tuthill here is train prefect; he should be along as Professor Dumbledore's representative, we were just going in to vote for a new head boy or girl."

"Sorry to interrupt your constitutional deliberations" said Draco.

"You are a git sometimes Draco" said Harry cheerfully.

"One does one's Malfoy best" said Draco waving an airy hand.

"Whence did this tip come?" asked Lionel.

"One of Sev Snape's assorted offspring 'just happened' to overhear something….read, was out doing some unauthorised snooping" said Harry. "Recognise the turn of phrase; we used it often enough after all!"

Lionel grinned.

"Just as well though" he said.

"Yeah" said Harry.

They went through the train; and Harry and Draco each produced a small flit gun such as was used for delivering doxy venom.

"Just a matter of routine, need to spray each pet" said Draco easily as each carriage full stared in some trepidation "There may be a rather noxious disease about, this will protect you all…."

It didn't work on the Mad Marauders; so Draco told them the truth.

It didn't work on the Belle Marauders either so Draco sighed and said,

"Dearest Auntie Bella, let's just you and me pretend that you believe me and I'll tell you about it all later, hmmm?" he used Parseltongue to make it a request of one marauder to another; and secret from non marauders.

Bella looked startled and nodded.

"Have a selection of weevils and their animals" she said.

Draco solemnly sprayed them all.

It was when he got into the next compartment and the spray on the fur of the writhing rat – his little mistress crying that she didn't want her pet frightened or hurt – that the writhing became more intense and where there had been a rat was suddenly a tall blonde man with teeth bared.

Draco and Harry levelled wands.

The little girl gave a cry of horror.

"You mean he was PRETENDING to be a rat and made me feel sorry for him because he made like he was pathetic? Take THAT!" and she picked up her cauldron and smashed it over the man's head.

"I say! Nice one young weevil!" said Lionel "YOU'd better join the MSHG if you can down dark wizards with that much aplomb and panache! What's your name?"

"Wanda Waffling. My big sister Wendy's in the second" said the child.

"Perhaps she ought to come along too" said Lionel. "Her house?"

"Ravenclaw" said Wanda.

"Hallellujah; Mei Chang will be glad if there's a couple of decent ones to leaven the lump of Me-first Murray and the singing putti" said Lionel. Wanda giggled.

"Oh yes, I've heard all about Amos Leroy from my sister" she said, evidently having no difficulty recognising him from Lionel's description.

Draco and Harry meanwhile were binding their prisoner effectively.

"Nice potion by the way" said Lionel.

"Severus. Who else?" said Harry laconically. "Normal mandragora won't work on animagi because it's part of their normal form; this one will and it also forced Werewolves back into man form. Which is why he developed it in the first place of course; you know how Severus is, too soft hearted to kill anyone if he has the alternative of making them gut horned toads while he delivers his most excruciating four hour lecture."

"Now who's a git?" said Draco laconically "Bein' deucedly rude about my father in law….. oh conscious again are you, Mein Herr? Never mind. Time to go I think. Nip up front and ask them to get the train going again, Mr Tuthill if you please; we'll take the quick route. And as we're feeling nice we might not even splinch him too much."

"You can splinch him all you like!" said Wanda Waffling "He's been sleeping IN MY BED!"

"Dirty little beast" said Draco "That's a paedophilia charge we can slap on him as well….our deepest regrets, Miss Waffling; your servants" and he swept her a deep bow. Harry just grinned at her and ruffled her hair; and then they apparated away with their prisoner.

"Gosh!" said Wanda. "I say what's this MSHG?"

"Well it was founded by those two among others to fight Voldemort and dark wizards" said Lionel. "It's for people who are game to do more than sit back and let others protect them; and too to air grievances, ask advice about home or school life and plot elaborate revenges on bullies, though that only when there aren't any teachers there. 'Tisn't polite to let the staff know those sorts of plots, even those who are members. Or even really prefects. And speaking of prefects, I have to go and vote for a head of school!"

In point of fact, Lionel was bombarded with questions about who he would choose as the new head now he was standing down.

"You're better than any of them" said Freya Tuthill.

"You're partial my child" said Lionel cheerfully "Actually I don't object to any of them; I think I have a slight partiality for Fran Longbottom followed by… Rupert I think; Kate has a temper and that's NOT good for the Head Girl. She's learned a lot to control it; but I'd hate to think of the consequences if we had another Dawlish visiting….Alice is on the other hand TOO laid back, she's a fantastic organiser but I think she lacks fire. Rupert Granville is fine but Fran has the greater initiative I think."

"What, no objections on the grounds she's Ravenclaw?" laughed Ravenclaw's Alison Kane.

"None at all" said Lionel. "Ravenclaw and Slytherin both can attract the wrong sort of people; we've both suffered from them in the past. There was a period when there were rather too many of them in the upper school; up til Draco's time having a Slytherin Head boy was a bit laughable. Draco broke the mould that was forming. Those of us coming in after his time wanted to live up to that; though I for one was also something of a fan of Fido Fraser. House shouldn't matter. That's what a lot of people moaned about; that for too many Ravenclaws house mattered. Sorry, hobby horse of mine."

"Justified" said Alison Kane "Thanks for explaining. I think we have some decent people in our house right now."

"Agreed" said Mei with a twinkle "I'm one of them!"

"Apart from the odd few – most of the third I have to say – you've a decent bunch" said Lionel "And some nice juniors too, the Waffling kids for example seem decent types."

"Crumbs Lionel, is there anything you miss?" demanded Colin Malik, also of Ravenclaw.

"I don't mean to be pompous old man, but it really is rather a head boy's – or girl's – job to NOT miss anything" said Lionel. "All decent prefects report concerns to the head oik; and it's up to the head oik to keep his or her ears and eyes open too in case prefects miss anything. It can happen; especially during exams. One also cultivates juniors to prattle artlessly – not sneaking, that would be a nasty habit to foster, just treating one as a human not a prefect – and listening to how happy or otherwise they are in general. Large numbers of grumbles generally means the level of serenity in the school is off. Are we by the way all happy with Fran?"

There were general murmurs of assent; a few dissenting voices.

Lionel's people would go with his choice; he strongly suspected a few stubborn Huffers and Gryffs might go for their house heads; and the Slythers would probably also back his view.

It was better to have a fairly clear cut choice before the voting; it made for less resentments afterwards. Lionel recalled noting in his younger days that Ravenclaw prefects, if chosen carefully, could be ragged with impunity because they had not supported David, or Ginny, or Abraxus and were therefore less likely to go to the head of school over anything because they carried on that disgusting lack of support after the choice of the school prefects had been announced.

The voting was done and dusted anyway; and Lionel had no intention of interfering with whoever was voted in!

The hat made its usual singing commentary on the choices of the House Founders and the now usual homily about working together.

There was a giggle near the back of the juniors and a voice piped

"Bob and his friends have so much fun, working together to get the job done"

Several second and third years joined in,

"Bob the builder, can he fix it? Bob the builder, YES HE CAN!"

"Excellent if rather unanticipated sentiments" said Professor Dumbledore serenely. He did not have a clue who Bob the Builder was but evidently a sufficiency of juniors and middles did to make the comment on the sentiments worth making.

Bob the builder featured in the infant life of those associated at all with the Casimir Malfoy household; and with no muggle born at all amongst the new intake it was a fair bet that the original singing had originated from Nathan.

Nathan had collected Solon Bullivant on the train as well in his coterie; and had had the Waffling child passed on to him too. Solon had the same blood disorder that had troubled his elder brother; equally he was expecting it to be stabilised by St Mungo's. He had the sort of cunning, mobile face that Lionel knew could become one of the worst sort of nasty types and Slytherin bullies; but channelled by a friendship with Nathan there was a better chance the boy would shape up and fulfil a better potential.

It was no surprise Walter Crabbe was in Slytherin; and so were Nathan, Solon, Isambard and U-may and four other boys.

U-may was the only girl in the house this year; probably she would be put to sleep with the second. Bella, looking out for her blood-kin and protégé reflected that at least the second year girls were mostly harmless, unless you fell foul of Ludmila Yaxley's more aggressive plants.

Charis, Magnus and Tobala were in Gryffindor – also unsurprisingly – as was Hazel Spikenard, to a faint groan from her cousin Salvia. There was a younger Harris sibling, a little girl and a Welsh child called Meriel Llewellyn rumoured to be a relative of 'dangerous' Dai Llewellyn of the Caerphilly Catapults, eaten in such tragic circumstances by a Chimera in Greece. Meriel looked a standoffish child but more aloof than stuck up. There were a few other boys unknown to anyone.

Bella recognised the name of Joshua Jones Hatted into Hufflepuff; his family were caretakers at Rowan House and he had had every expectation of being in Rowan so was speechless with joy. Sirius had warned Bella to look out for him; the family had lived in the dire apartment Sirius had – unknowingly – owned; and he felt some family responsibility to the boy. The boy looked far too, well, HUFFERish to be interesting but Bella sighed and resolved to try to keep an eye on him. Another name she recognised was that of Pomfrey; a girl called Heloise, and wondered idly if she was related to Pepperup Poppy as they irreverently called Madam Poppy Pomfrey. The girl seemed unremarkable; indeed all the Huffers looked a tad boring or dim.

The Ravers had a few more interesting types, Jingjie and the Wafflng child who seemed to be fast friends; another was the brother of an older Ravenclaw, one Cyprian Ogren whose older brother Damon was in Bella's year and was notable for his fondness for his own voice and desire to lecture. Another recognisable name was Pince – not Prince – a girl called Isis who gazed on the world through amiable myopic eyes through thick lenses utterly unlike the gimlet stare of Madam Irma Pince as the older ones could testify.

Dumbledore announced that the Head of School this year was to be Francesca Longbottom; and in his opinion she was likely to make an excellent head and would strive to live up to past examples.

He seemed very pleased with the choice; and if he felt that the school had been spoiled recently and now had a rather more pedestrian Head Girl he did not say so. The school split up into its houses, the older ones showing the new weevils around.

"Well apart from the Crabbe boy the weevils seem mostly harmless" drawled Gorbrin in his best Draco voice. "Hey Crabbe, is it true you like torturing little kids for fun?"

"I ain't even ANSWERING a bleeding Gobbo!" said young Crabbe.

"Wrong answer" said Gorbrin, who had been working hard over the holidays. Young Crabbe hoisted into the air wriggling with the excess legs of a woodlouse. "This, small brat, is the standard punishment for racist comments. It's normally the province of the prefects, but I'm stunnin'ly talented doncha know and so I'm taking liberties over my own chastisement."

"Be nice, however, Malfoy, and put him down please" said Leo "It really is my job."

"As you wish" said Gorbrin with a gesture.

The blubbering boy fell in a heap.

"Malfoy's right; you make racist comments, you get to do time as a woodlouse" said Leo. "He asked you a question; you have the right to answer the accusation levelled at you in that question."

"Well he was lying" said Crabbe.

"No he wasn't" said Nathan "Cooper and me and some Gryffs SAW you doing it. I told my brother about it. He was going to see if you could justify yourself 'cos he's dead fair; and you can't because you're a rotter and a bully and you like hurting smaller and weaker beings than yourself just for fun you – you CALIGULA you!"

"And he went for his wand on us that didn't have any yet" said Isambard "But Nathan don't need a wand to cast protection spells."

"Those of us who have a brother who fought Voldemort get a few bits of extra training before we come to school" said Nathan. "As those who have tried to make racial attacks on Gorbrin and our sisters have found out I believe."

"Oh yes" said Gorbrin. "Caligula's cousin and Zabini to name a couple. We don't tolerate incipient Deatheaters in Slytherin House any more Crabbe; your parents ought to have warned you, Voldemort is dead and so are his cohorts. Don't even START because someone is GOING to sort you out. If your need to hurt is driven by unhappiness at home for any reason, equally if you ask an older one we'll do all we can to help out. Because we recognise that sometimes people act up because they're unhappy."

"I was perfectly happy until I seen YOU" said Crabbe rudely.

"Close to the wind, Weevil" said Leo. "Well, well, try to turn into a decent human being; it would so much improve you laddie."

Crabbe glowered.

He did not see what business it was of others – especially stinking gobbos – that he had hurt that wretched beggar brat. Things like that were there just begging to be baited!.

Gorbrin knew Crabbe's sort.

He had seen that sort of look before; and it had been on the face of Samuel Block. Block had assumed a rather eager, almost aroused look when he was able to hurt others; and Gorbrin had surprised that look on the face of Walter Crabbe as he assimilated that there was only one little girl in the house in that year. Equally the look of sullen, resentful lying lay on his face when he was being ticked off by those more powerful than him. It was sometimes said that you could tell a criminal by his face; and that was not entirely true. It was not the features, so much, but the expression they wore. And the expression a face wore of habit would eventually etch something of itself into the very face. The concept of small eyed meanness was as often as not eyes narrowed in a mean expression rather than the size of the eyes themselves; and those who looked down their noses had an arrogant look rather than a prominent nose meaning arrogance of itself.

Gorbrin should know; he had practiced the look in a mirror for hours to give just the right level of Malfoy arrogance if he felt it warranted. Sometimes a total assumption of being in control could avert a fight if one was challenged. Gorbrin preferred to avoid fights. His father, his true father Tobak, had been a man of peace. His stepfather Lucius advised him not to START fights – save for what he believed in if there was no other way – but always to finish them. Lucius rarely had to fight. The faintly raised eyebrow and Malfoy sneer was generally enough to make most people back down.

It was a very useful thing to have at one's disposal.

Being a Malfoy was as much a state of mind as of birth.

And Gorbrin was staunchly a Malfoy – even though he did TRY to insist on being called Malfoy-Tobak – for all that being a Malfoy stood for in this modern age.

Nobody was as fine, thought Gorbrin, as Lucius.

And Lucius would expect him to keep an eye on Crabbe even though the memories of Samuel Block made him quail inside and shudder; perhaps more BECAUSE of that, because it was his duty to overcome such feelings and just use the memories to recognise the same type, the creeping petty cruel types who liked to hurt and distress those weaker and smaller that himself because it was the only way to feel bigger. Gorbrin wished suddenly that Severus Snape was here to talk to; Madam Hardbroom was a kindly tyrant of a house mistress, but she wasn't Professor Snape.

Professors Black and Khan were ALMOST good enough, but they lacked…..well, Snapeness.

Gorbrin sighed.

Perhaps Professor Snape would not mind if he wrote to him for advice; to find out if such types could ever be helped to overcome their nastier predilections. Somehow he doubted it; but he had to ask. And Professor Snape was the wisest man he knew; perhaps even wiser than Dad Lucius. Dad after all had never taught sundry assorted people.

He would send an owl first thing in the morning, with apologies for his cheek but explaining his dilemma. He was sure Professor Snape would understand!


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Crabbe started on U-may almost immediately. Pinching and poking seemed to be his idea of making game of a little girl. U-may turned a flat unfriendly stare on him.

"Desist" she said coldly.

"Or what? You're all alone, I can get you any time I want" taunted Crabbe.

U-may did not muck about.

She promptly turned into a snake and bit him.

Crabbe screamed in pain and terror.

"Serve you right, Crabbe" laughed Nathan "Say, U-may, did you really poison him? I mean in any way sort of fatally?"

U-may, resuming her normal form, regarded Crabbe.

"Suppose we all watch him and find out if he drops dead or not?" she said coldly "It'd be more fun not knowing; more a surprise than any kind of anticipation."

Crabbe screamed in real fear.

It brought Madam Hardbroom to see what was going on.

"Mr Crabbe, WHAT is this noise about?" she demanded. Connie had not so far been favourably impressed by anyone of the surname 'Crabbe'; and Leo, as a Marauder, had apprised her, off the record, of what had happened in Diagon Alley.

"She POISONED me!" cried Walter, pointing at U-may.

"How?" asked Connie.

"I bit him" said U-may. She did not bother to say that she was in snake form.

Connie blinked.

"NOT a very ladylike thing to do" she said.

"It was retaliation" said U-may "It is not done to sneak; this my honoured father tells me, but I had good reason. This person is someone I despise wholeheartedly. He should be staked out for the carrion birds."

"We generally do not enact those sorts of barbarities in England" said Connie.

"Please Madam Hardbroom, find out what venom she stung me with and cure it!" sobbed Crabbe.

"Excuse me? Venom? Stung? I understood she bit you."

"I was in the form of a snake at the time" volunteered U-may. "I have not stung him. Snakes don't sting. Snakes bite. He is stupid and ignorant as well as bestial and nasty."

"Good gracious me!" said Connie "An animagus so young? Dear me!" she pointed her wand at Crabbe and cast the Revellaspell; then swung round on U-may.

"You injected no venom at all" she said.

"Oh dear, did I forget? How silly of me" said U-may "If this nasty animal makes me feel like I need to bite him again I shan't make such a mistake another time."

Connie felt rather lost.

On the one hand she should punish U-may for causing the boy so much fear; and for her laconic air of sardonic humour at his expense. On the other hand such a punishment of fear was probably no less than the little monster deserved.

"I – I think you should each seek out the Kipling poems in the library and write me thirty times the second verse of 'The female of the species'; Mr Crabbe to give you an understanding that when you attempt to pick on what you think to be weak you may be making a mistake; and Miss Naga as a punishment for over-reacting."

"Yes Madam Hardbroom" said U-may with cool tractability.

"But I'M the one who was attacked, why should I be punished?" whined Crabbe.

Connie regarded him almost as inscrutably as U-may.

"Because you obviously did something to deserve it" she said "I know your kind Mr Crabbe; and I am not impressed with a boy who picks on little girls. There is something inherently unmanly in it. Try not to irritate the more talented transfigurationists among the prefects; they may be struck by your lack of manliness and come up with an appropriate transfiguration. If you whine any more I shall double your impot" she added sharply as he opened his mouth again.

When she had swept out Bella said,

"I can tell you the verse if you like U-may without having to go to the library; I like Kipling."

"Crumbs, Bella, I never knew you Kippled!" joked Mimi.

Bella stuck her tongue out and murmured low enough for U-may to quickly write down, without Crabbe overhearing,

"When Nag the basking cobra hears the careless foot of man

He will sometimes wriggle sideways and avoid it if he can

But his mate makes no such motion where she camps beside the trail

For the female of the species is more deadly than the male."

U-may nodded.

"Thank you" she said.

It was a surprise to Bella and Mimi and Drusillina that U-may was also an animagus; but why not? She was a natural Parselmouth after all.

It was not such a surprise to them as it had been to Crabbe!

Nathan and co now had a perfect target for the automatic robe roller; and Walter Crabbe duly went into breakfast with his school robes in the process of being rolled.

It was a little wasted; he had full uniform on as well.

Still, it would do another time; in his quidditch robes say.

They retrieved the toy hastily before he noticed.

The clockwork earthquake might have more effect.

Charity Burbage was a kindly old woman and her class was generally seen as one to at least relax in; but even she had to take a boy to task when he appeared to heave and shake every few moments.

"Dear me, what ever is the matter Mr er….?" She asked.

"Someone had cast the hurling hex on my chair!" declared Crabbe.

"That's something to hold in reserve at that" Nathan muttered to Isambard behind his hand.

Charity Burbage was not the most talented of witches; but she thought herself capable of dejinxing any first year's spell.

"_Finite incantatem!_" she cast the spell that would end all spell effects.

The clockwork earthquake gave another convulsive hiccup.

The rest of the class were in fits of giggles.

"Well dear, if someone is talented enough to defeat the spell-ending charm you had better change chairs" said Madam Burbage kindly.

Crabbe sulkily got another chair; which, because he was too lazy to move his books, he replaced in the same place.

The conspirators were in silent whoops as they waited for the clockwork earthquake to start its business. It was a brilliant piece of kit, a mere net of enchanted steel mesh, fine enough not to be easily noticed in shadow, and sundry strands shortened on the reel they all ran to in convulsive jerks strong enough to lift even quite heavy things. Without goblin steel it would be impossible to manufacture; and those of mischief bent hugged themselves that they would be able to study the manufacture of goblin metals in school later in their career and duplicate such things!

There were goblins who preached the unwisdom in showing the arts to wizards even in exchange for changing the law on wand use, lest they make their own magical weapons and turn again on goblins; perhaps it was just as well that such worthies had no idea that the sole idea of some of the young wizards keen to learn their secrets was to apply it to better jokes and toys.

It should be made clear straight away that letting the Malfoy boy have a selection of beta-test toys from the fertile brain of Garjala at a considerable discount increased the profit margin of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes by some eighty per cent over the next year.

Finally the earthquake ran down and Crabbe might study in peace – not that he intended paying any attention in Muggle Studies anyway – just in time for the bell to go.

Ancient runes was next; and no real time to reset the earthquake.

It had however exceeded expectations.

"Crumbs, what a lark to set it up under a chair where a big boy has his girlfriend on his lap canoodling!" said Nathan "Really, I mean, would the earth move for them?"

Crabbe survived Ancient Runes unscathed; unless one counted Nathan carving 'Crabbe Stinks' in Oghams on the desk corner. Nathan already read Ogham; Lucius had taught him when he had asked some years before and it had seemed worth brushing up.

After break it was to be their first introduction to Defence Against the Dark Arts with Uncle Remus. Professor Lupin rather. Remus was married to cousin Tonks and little Andromeda was named after Tonks' mother, mother-Narcissa's sister. Nathan did not think it in the least bit strange having more than one mother; he was used to it. He was not sure if he was envious of chaps who only had one and could therefore get away with more; or felt sorry for them because there were less people around to play with you or look after you if you felt unwell. There was nobody like mothers if a chap felt unwell. Nursery elves just didn't read stories or give cuddles the same, though Lala, Dad's old nurse and Dobby's mum, was fairly fine. Reedy tried hard but she was more inclined to scold. Nathan thought Reedy might be Dobby's big sister; he had never dared to ask the managing little elf.

But even so, there was nothing like mums. He wondered if Crabbe had a mum. He couldn't bear to think how ashamed his mums would be if he was as nasty as Crabbe; and that would make him even more bitterly ashamed and determined to improve! Perhaps Crabbe didn't have a mum. If so that was awful.

He asked,

"Crabbe, do you have a mum?"

Crabbe stared.

"Yes of course I do!" he said "A proper one, not a scarlet woman like yours! MY mum is married to my dad!"

Nathan stared.

"So's mine" he said "All my mums are!"

"No they're not, you're just a bastard!" said Crabbe delighted to find something to taunt Malfoy about.

"You are an prize idiot" said Nathan scornfully "You don't know what you're talking about."

It stopped being satisfying to taunt when your taunts were treated scornfully as idiocy.

Professor Lupin brought the class to a debate over what constituted a Dark Creature; they were a bright bunch and rapidly got to the point that it was intent that made a creature Dark or otherwise; and Lupin added that the same went for Dark Wizards too.

Nathan put his hand up; and Lupin smiled encouragingly.

"Please sir, is Dark Intent born in some people?" asked Nathan "Or is it a sickness of the mind that can make kids LIKE hurting others? Because it seems unnatural to me that there are kids my age who actually delight in and laugh at other kids smaller than them being hurt. I wondered if it was a sickness of the mind rather than a dark nature."

Lupin looked at him sharply. He had picked up enough legilimensy from Severus to see the boy's genuine struggle and concern. His animagus sharpened senses also picked up Crabbe muttering 'I'll get you for that Malfoy'.

"Yes, Mr Malfoy, I can see that to a normal, well balanced child with a happy and stable home life the concept of sadism – the proper term for what I think you struggle to express – is an alien one. It is caused by one or more factors and without studying the unfortunate child involved – and yes I do mean unfortunate – it is difficult to see which cause or causes may have led to this. Those children who have seen nothing but violence know no other way of expressing themselves; those children who have been reared by evil adults and taught such things are also morally and socially disadvantaged by knowing nothing else. But sometimes there are those children born who have as you describe it a sickness of the mind; and although in normal happy surroundings still CHOOSE such monstrous acts as pulling wings off fairies or tying noisy things to the tails of cats or running pins into their younger siblings or whatever. Such individuals are sick and not really fully human until they have sought help to adjust themselves to society. Unfortunately there are those parents who, not wishing to accept the reality that they have spawned a monster, try to laugh it off as 'childish pranks' and refuse to accept and see the warning signs. This is rare however; and most children who have started bullying by your tender age have very real disadvantages in their home life and should be pitied for their inability to interact without violence. If such individuals reach out and seek help it is not too late for them to learn normal behaviour. I can only suggest that if you know any such you react to their actions with sympathy and try to understand what it is that causes such aberrant actions."

"So just jinxing them into a ball isn't an answer sir?"

Lupin sighed.

"If a bully will not respond the only way you can deal with them is by showing that their bullying behaviour is not going to touch you. Sometimes that means jinxing them into a ball – that's one of Draco's phrases – until they learn not to pick on you or those you hold dear. A bully who WILL not learn to modify his – or her – behaviour has then to be taught that society will not tolerate his actions, that he be shown that he will not get away with trying to be another Voldemort. Voldemort – Tom Riddle – was already torturing fellow orphans and their pets before he came to school. He however was clever enough to hide his predilections for causing pain from the rather foolish Headmaster of the time and exerted his not inconsiderable charm of manner instead and learned the insidious skills of mental torture through the giving or withholding of his approval and friendship to his satellites. The first Deatheaters. One has to pity Deatheaters in a way; the insidious snares of adoration for a strong and forceful character allied with the extremely skilled playing of little resentments on the part of Riddle twisted his victims into a profound mental slavery even before he added layers of compulsions. Few Deatheaters were strong enough to recognise those mental shackles for what they were, forged as they were in formative and vulnerable teenage years with the light hand of a master of cruelty. We revere the two that got away, Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy – yes, your father, Nathan – and who volunteered to pretend still to worship at his sick throne to help bring about his downfall."

Nathan was proud of his father and beamed.

"So does that mean, sir" asked Jingjie "That all evil wizards got their mental knickers in a twist and should be pitied?"

"By no means" said Lupin "The deatheaters were to be pitied – to an extent. But those who were revolted by what they were being made into went to the strongest wizard they knew – Professor Dumbledore – and asked for aid to get free. Some younger ones SAW what Riddle was doing to their elders; and foreswore his traps. Harry Potter carried a portion of Voldemort's consciousness in his own mind from the time that his mother's sacrifice bounced the killing curse; and he resisted all attempts to control him. The ones who were trapped were weak; because of incidents that had weakened them; because of being weak characters; or because of having become bullies already because of the awful conditions of their home lives. And that can run through all society, high and low, rich and poor, wizarding and muggle, human and goblin. Bullies run in generations; when a child grows up knowing nothing but violence and seeing his sire get his own way by bullying what else does he know? What else does he know to pass on to HIS child? But the intelligent can see that this is not looked on as acceptable; and CHOOSE to step aside to a better path. Evil or good or the rather flabby indifference that most people end up with is a matter of choice. And before the bell goes, let me leave those of you who are inclined to the state of flabby indifference with a thought. All it needs for evil to triumph is for good men to stay silent. Very well, take down an essay title, 'what I would like to do to the person I dislike most and how likely I am to do it."

That ought to produce some interesting answers; and throw up perhaps the one Nathan meant, presumably the Crabbe boy. If he was sick in the head, he would probably not be able to resist gloating about what he wanted to do; nor would he know or understand if such was monstrous.

Now that the law had been finally introduced to permit the Headmaster to recommend medical aid for the mentally sick and to recommend the removal of a child from damaging parents something might be done for the boy.

Unless the boy was merely nasty; in which case only social pressure might be hoped to have any effect.

Crabbe sneered at Nathan.

"I so am going to enjoy writing about what I want to do to you, trying to make me look stupid!"

"Actually" said Nathan "I was trying to understand why you're such a stupid git and wondered if it's your fault or not. Because I can't imagine being such a miserable little creep as you. Funnily enough I'm kinda sorry for you."

"It's wasted, Nathan" said U-may. "I'm going to write about making him beg me not to bite him and then how I reveal it's all on the wizarding wireless so everyone knows that he's a squirming little coward so he can't ever bully anyone again 'cos you can't fear a coward and pain is only pain."

"Ridicule is generally a good weapon to use" agreed Nathan solemnly "People who like to tyrannize don't like being laughed at. Mind you, Crabbe, I notice you knew immediately who I meant when I talked about sick individuals; maybe if you acknowledged that you ARE sick, the Professors could help you overcome it; we'd all put past behind us and help."

"Maybe" said U-may.

"Is he sick? In what way?" asked Wanda Waffling. "We'll help of course, Malfoy."

"I'm NOT sick!" declared Crabbe.

"He is too" said Nathan "What normal kid gives a beggar a coin that's been heated up to burn?"

"Lumme! That sounds pretty sick to me!" said Wanda, gazing on Crabbe with horrified fascination.

Crabbe spat at her.

That was too much for any good intentions of well-meaning weevils; and Crabbe missed dinner for being covered in tiny tentacles, boneless and dark brownish purple.

Nathan had got experimental and pulled out _Aubergine Kadavra_ just for shits and giggles.

Professor Flitwick discovered, and restored, Crabbe in time for the first Charms lesson and all were too busy on the complexities of locomotor charms to think much about Crabbe.

It was care of Magical Beasts next, with Hagrid.

"We're lookin' at bowtruckles here t'day" said Hagrid "Very important t' know how t' handle bowtruckles, have yer eyes out they can if they feel under attack, yeah, and they favour wand trees so any one cutting wand wood they see as attackin' them see?"

He held up a tank with several of the little stick-men figures.

Charis raised a hand.

"Are they related to fairies sir?" she asked.

Hagrid scratched his head noisily.

"Well now, they're part of the fey creatures in broad" he said cautiously "That cover a whole lot though. It's a distant relationship, but yeah, they are, kinda."

Some of the children found Hagrid rather unnerving; partly because they associated him with their first approach to this new school; partly because he was so large; and partly because of his uneducated speech.

"Please sir, can I ask a question unrelated to bowtruckles?" said Jingjie

"Well if that's to do with animals, you may. You must be Mr Chang" said Hagrid.

"It is sir. My dad heard a rumour that when we choose electives we'll be able to choose one of two paths, care of generalised magical creatures and care of domesticated magical creatures, is that true?"

"Well it might very well be, Mr Chang, but y'know if it is them as is teaching about it is always the last t'hear what the ministry has t'say. The troubles Professor Snape had over the bees they got in their bonnets over regulation lengths for cauldron stirrers! Then there was the ministry decision that DADA oughta be theory only….THAT didn't last long when it turned out the idea were brought about by a Deatheater what had infiltrated the ministry…. I know Mr Hawke and Mr Abraxus Malfoy put the idea forward as being more sensible-like t'train effectively steed handlers different to say dragon handlers; and that make a lot of sense. Reckon if they do, Professor Dumbledore'll have a second teacher in, 'cos I can't see how t'work it otherwise."

"Thank you sir" said Jingjie. It did not really answer his question; but that the idea had been put forward – and by influential types like Malfoys – meant that the rumour was probably true.

The lesson proceeded without any more ado, with Hagrid demonstrating how to bribe bowtruckles with fairy eggs or woodlice – the word had several people look round at Crabbe – and how to hold them without breaking them. This was to be a practical later in the term; feeding them was the first thing to master.

Crabbe took great delight in offering fairy eggs then snatching them back to tease the little creatures.

He had no idea how fast they could move and soon yelped in pain as the sharp, bark-tearing fingernails pierced his thumb and he was also well bitten before the eggs were snatched from him.

Hagrid came over with a soothing cream.

"Oh dear!" he said "Reckon they musta thought you moved too aggressive-like or wasn't fast enough with them eggs!"

Nobody told on Crabbe; but they all thought it served him right.

It also served him right that he decided to get 'revenge' on Hagrid by hurting his pet Pekes.

Fang was too big and scared the boy; he was not to know what a coward the big boarhound was.

Fang was quite happy to see someone do unpleasantness to the Pekes; he loathed them cordially. Unfortunately for Crabbe, the one he seized was definitely one of the blast-ended Pekes left from Krait's hurried – and not perfect – transfiguration from Blast-ended Screwts and as he grabbed the creature's tail to tie it to a selection of bottles the animal let fly with a burst of flame a good foot long and Crabbe, right in the firing line, sustained a very nasty burn.

He had trouble explaining to Madam Pomfrey how he came by it too.

Madam Pomfrey was rotten to him, decided Crabbe. She had asked awkward questions and made him squirm; and when he had confessed it was one of those stupid little dogs she had told him he had no right to be anywhere near the blast-ended Pekes and it served him right.

For a burn of such severity he had to have been a LOT closer than he had any right to be; and Madam Pomfrey had been patching up children for too many school generations who had sobbed that their wounds were got at the hands of a child called 'Crabbe' of one kind or another to have any illusions that he had merely wanted to play with the dogs.

The flame producing effect seemed to breed true too; Alice Trumball Hagrid had needed a soothing cream from the puppies she was helping to wean.

Still they were better than skrewts.

Crabbe knew nothing of this; only that he felt hard done by and resented Madam Pomfrey. And a child in Hufflepuff had the same surname; so he would take out his frustrations on HER.

Gentle little Heloise Pomfrey was an easy target for a boy who liked sly nips and pinches and pokes with the sharper arithmantic instruments; she cried quietly in the loo so as not to make anyone else notice her.

Fortunately for Heloise she was discovered by an older Hufflepuff, Martha Bones, a luminary of the MSHG who was also a member of the two several-house wide gangs of that year; and who was on good terms with the other gang who had more members in Slytherin house and influence with the rest. Once little Heloise had been induced to sob out what was wrong, Martha promised her it was as good as fixed.

Shortly thereafter, eight of the nine Slytherin second approached Crabbe.

Two of them were goblins.

Cecil Burke was the spokesman; and once Crabbe was hoisted by one ankle he spoke.

"Look here, Crabbe, we don't like the way you tried to get at Heloise Pomfrey; just because she's a Huffer doesn't mean there aren't people looking out for her. And anyone else for that matter. But it's despicable to pick on the relative of a staff member just because you know that honour forbids them to rat you up. Heard you picked on U-may too for the same reason. But just to make it clear, if ANYTHING happens to upset or discommode Heloise we'll hold YOU directly responsible. And that is NOT something you are going to like one little bit. Do I make myself er, pellucidly clear?"

"I don't know what you mean Burke" said Crabbe sulkily "And you're only the son of a convict, you can't talk to anyone."

"No, they haven't caught your father – yet" said Zajala Malfoy-Tobak. "They will. Well as it isn't clear maybe we should leave you there until it is; c'mon oiks."

And they left him dangling.

It was an hour or so before they turned up again and asked,

"Clear yet?"

"Yes" said Crabbe sulkily; mostly because he wanted to be released.

He dropped rather bruisingly to the floor.

"Good; make sure you remember it" said Burke coldly.

It had never occurred to Crabbe that honour would forbid the relative of a staff member to rat him up; he had no honour. It was also news to him that U-may was a relative of a staff member and he wondered who!

His essay for Professor Lupin had a lot of people he wanted to discommode, rotters who didn't do what he wanted and who stopped him having fun because people were made to be victims for a reason, it wasn't bullying to hurt victims they were born in that position for the strong to exert their will on them. And the ones who interfered with that ought to be victims and be tied up and burned with a wand until they realised that they were victims and begged and then they could be properly disciplined.

He enjoyed writing; it was quite cathartic after all the strains of the first day at Hogwarts and the inadequacies of those around him to recognise what he was.

And when Remus Lupin read it later it struck a chill into his heart that had him taking the essay directly to Professor Dumbledore.

Albus Dumbledore read through the essay with mounting concern and horror.

"What made you set such a departure of an essay title, Remus?" he asked.

"A remark the Malfoy boy made – a question he asked" said Remus "And I recall a couple of years ago disciplining his sister Erica for making a sotto voce comment about which of two people she disliked was merely nasty and which was a dark creature. I believe the one she apostrophised as being a dark creature was that Parkinson girl you had to expel. I know you considered her a failure. If it IS a mental illness, I thought it was better to catch it early and see if anything can be done."

Dumbledore nodded.

"Very wise, Remus. He sounds a veritable little monster; but if it is curable we must do all we can to help the child. I will take this essay to the experts in St Mungo's and see what they have to say. I'm going to ask you to forget to hand the rest back too until I have an answer."

"Certainly Albus" said Remus. "If they cannot help him there I will feel less uncomfortable about the likelihood that he too will be heading for expulsion."

"Having such a younger brother cannot have made it easier for Victor" said Dumbledore. "I have half a mind to write to the boy and ask if he has had a chance to reflect why his callous actions were so abhorrent; and ask if he wants to come and see me and talk through how his little monster of a brother has contributed to unacceptable behaviour. I cannot have him back here because of little Amabel Keilly; but I would be prepared to negotiate with Severus to take him for OWLs and sixth form."

Remus nodded.

"It might almost have been a plea for help; and as much a desire to have attention as it was on the part of the girls who were foolish enough to let him go further that was proper with them" he said. "And if the little monster always got his way, maybe a desire to get HIS way somehow?"

Dumbledore nodded.

"He was unrepentant; but some months on it may be that he is willing to listen. For I wager his home life is miserable; what I have heard is that baby Walter is just the perfect one and can do no wrong. For the imperfect one to be expelled must be traumatic. Indeed, I think I shall visit the boy."

Victor was a much chastened youth; indeed he sobbed all over Professor Dumbeldore that he had not realised that he was acting like Walter until Madam Hardbroom had called him a using spoiled brat and then it was too late.

"It is not too late" said Dumbeldore kindly "I cannot have you back in Hogwarts; but I CAN ask Severus Snape to take you – and put you down a year so you can take your OWLs! – and give you a fresh start with a majority who do not know you. I will rely on him to ask his daughter Jade and her friends to keep anything they know quiet; and to give you every chance!"

"Jade's always ready to jump on people she doesn't think behave well" said Victor dully.

"And equally ready to give them a chance if they try to make good" said Dumbledore. "As she did with Dympna Burke you know! You have found out for yourself that sexual gratification is no substitute for friendship; there is only one boy in the year and I expect if you are honest with him – for honesty wins loyalty – he will stand by you and help you to fit in. I have to clear it with Professor Snape; but I am sure he will be amenable. He always said there was more potential to you than you chose to show the world you know" he added mendaciously. "Compared the way your potential was squashed to Harry Potter with his bullying guardians." What Severus had said was that the Crabbe boy irritated him because he was too shut in on himself to make anything much of himself like a belligerent Harry. It was close enough; and Dumbledore meant to inform Severus what he had doubtless MEANT to say, and hid a grin at the waspish comments Severus would have on THAT score.

Severus after all would never deny a boy a second chance if he, Albus, declared him truly ready to take it; he was the last person in the world to do so.

Victor was gratified at the comment; as Albus guessed he might be.

"He said that sir? Oh sir, if he hadn't gone I might not have gone so far…. He could make you feel disciplined without it being a chore or hardship….Madam Hardbroom isn't half the man Professor Snape is!"

Dumbledore chose not to point out the logical inconsistency in that statement and sighed, himself, for Severus; Connie was a most excellent potioneer, and strict enough with little ones and girls but Severus had kept Slytherin House on the straight path since he found it fully for himself and ruled it with a rod of iron.

He deserved his own school.

But Hogwarts missed him sorely!


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Dumbledore was glad that he had got Victor sorted out and packed off out of the country to Severus before the grave faced healers in white robes had come to take Walter to an isolation ward in the mental illness department.

The Crabbe parents were incandescent with fury; and Dumbledore had to work hard to convince them that it was either a case of attempting a cure for a problem that they were so busy trying to deny that they had made almost a virtue of his 'forceful little personality' or of seeing the boy end up in Azkaban as soon as he was seventeen and prosecutable. They had grown so used to the little monster that they were unable at first to see how abnormal he was; and Dumbledore gave them the assessment from St Mungo's to read.

It was a clinical assessment of a mind so truly abnormal as to be a danger to the other children at Hogwarts and likely to have criminal consequences were not ruthless and experimental treatment techniques carried out at once. The head of Mental Health, a no-nonsense witch in middle years told Dumbledore that with deep legilimensy they hoped to find a source of the abnormality and, by expunging entirely even the unconscious memory of it, to bring the boy with discussion and therapy to a recognition of his own wrong thinking.

"It might take years" said the Healer "But if it makes him a normal child and enables him to have a full and happy life instead of trying to be a second Voldemort it is worth doing. Had his parents brought him to us the moment it became apparent his behaviour was aberrant it would have been much easier; but every action of his has reinforced in his own mind that his behaviour is normal."

"It might have helped if they had not decided that there was no problem" Dumbledore had said dryly.

Severus had spoken of an evil book that warped the minds of children and was to apprise the healers of its effect on the off-chance that something similar had warped the boy; he hoped that would help!

Of the Headmaster's worries over the Crabbe boys he showed nothing however; and merely spoke of the forthcoming Triwizard competition.

"The quidditch this year therefore, being disrupted, will be played for the David Fraser Shield, more informally than is usual" he said. "Applicants for the Triwizard who will be seventeen during its course need a written note of permission from their parent or guardian, others advance your names to me and we shall travel out to Germany after the weekend. We have a new and exciting development; Mr Lucius Malfoy has installed a viewing globe of the brand new Wizarding Wireless Vision for us, and at Prince Peak Academy and Beauxbatons so each school may see how their champions are doing during the various tasks. It is one way only; shouting out advice is pointless and that I will warn you now. Incidentally, as I shall be the arbiter of whom I take, those who are significantly under age will NOT be going even if, as I am reliably informed, some of the Mad Marauders are convinced that they have a way around the age line. I must point out also that those people of goblin heritage had better be able to perform any tasks they may wish without a wand since carrying a wand for goblins and part goblins is banned in Germany and I do not think I trust the nature of interschool co-operation not to have any such youths hied off to some noisome German gaol for the crime of being English. I apologise for this to my goblin and mixed race students. This affects I think Mr Bane, Miss Gan Gorjak and Miss Gan Nork. It also affects Miss Konal in Austria and I believe that Professor Snape is refusing to risk her. If it is any consolation, though I believe any one of the three of you, and Senagra Gan Konal too, could have beaten the foreign contenders of any of the previous years, there are students in the two sixths who are capable of surpassing you on this test."

Arjelan rose.

"Sir, we are all aware that Lionel Dell and Mei Chang are the two real contenders. We'd like the others to go along though to give moral support and be ready to lick those Kraut gits if need be. Cholaka and me know we can't go, but surely any human is all human? Can't you claim that so us goblins have at least part of a representative in Morty Bane?"

"Mortimer my boy, you would not be allowed a wand; just in case" said Dumbledore "Not, at least, until I managed to clarify the situation. Will you take the risk?"

"Sir, I'm a Marauder. Marauders always take the risk" said Mortimer rising.

The other Marauders cheered him.

"Better blood you in quick then" muttered Leo. "Then you won't NEED a ruddy wand."

Mortimer's heart raced as he was led to the blooding ceremony in Myrtle's loo.

He knew why it was called Myrtle's loo; and was even more impressed than he had been before by Professor Abraxus and his marble hand; and by Professor Carmichael and her ability to adapt!

He had, in truth, made up his mind to be a Marauder and accept the invitation on the spur o the moment when Dumbledore called upon him.

He could not let Dumbledore down; nor the school; nor the Malfoy twins; nor the Marauders. And that was what Marauders did; they did not let people down.

He was surprised at who were Marauders.

Professor Khan was there, the man who had been so kind to Bjorn's father, and helped him get a job as bodyguard to all the children in Orme Court, by talking to the Professors Malfoy; and Professor Black; and Professor Lupin. The Mad Marauders he already knew; and there were a selection of third years, one weevil and a child not even in school yet, who called Professor Khan 'Daddy'; and the great Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy.

"As it's Durmstrang bashing we had to blow in long enough for the ceremony" Harry grinned "You can blood up with Sev Snape when you're over there; and Jade'll be involved you betcha! And Seaghsron too probably and Lynx and Fabian even if Senagra can't."

"We came just because" said Hawke, laying a hand on Mortimer's shoulder. Mortimer smiled mistily.

"I'm in for the Konal family" Professor Konal, one of Mortimer's favourite teachers grinned. "And Mimi stands in for her mother and uncle. It's full quorum and almost a waste not to have brought in another whole layer."

"They aren't ready yet" said Mei "Anyway, what about the rule 'no-one under twelve without special circumstances or pestilential brats like Bella interfering?"

"What, is Bella part of the rule?" grinned Draco.

Mei sniffed.

"She almost has to be; you can't bind her by them any other way. Every rule, written and unwritten, should be appended 'this means Bella too'."

Bella grinned unrepentantly.

"I don't know what the rules ARE" said Mortimer.

"Oh there aren't any real rules" said Draco "We try to keep the youngsters out until they've settled down a bit; and we do what is necessary. But the bloodsong will TELL you what that is."

"Time" said Lydia.

They slit their palms; and made the blood tie with Mortimer, and those who had not previously blooded, mingled with those they had not specifically bonded with.

"Not that it really matters; we're sufficiently many headed and mutable to all be one anyhow" said Lydia.

And then they hissed

_**Ssss**__ We be of one blood, ye and I_ _**ssss**_ and Mortimer knew he was now a Parseltongue! And the pounding of the blood of so many people in his ears sang of a brotherhood so deep and profound as he had never known; and knew that Hawke counted him kin. And he threw his arms around his mentor and guardian and almost cried with joy.

oOoOo

Durmstrang!

That dark forbidding castle with its dark forbidding lake frowned towards the Catalina Flying Boat as it came in to land with the contingent from Hogwarts.

The would-be champions from Britain were Lionel Dell, Mei Chang, Mortimer Bane, Ross and Freya Tuthill, Francesca Longbottom, Romneya Coulter of Slytherin, Debbie Brent and Jake Webbe of Gryffindor, and Achille Crouch Villeneuve who had demanded the chance to come along despite the Marauders of all ages howling with mirth at him having so much as a shout at it when there were better wizards and witches than him in the third.

As Bella Black had regularly bested Achille in the duelling club as had Mimi this was true enough to be even more hurtful; but Achille was adamant. Dumbledore had asked if he was sure he really wanted to attempt this as there were others more skilful; but Achille dug his heels in. He HAD to be better than any of the others except perhaps Fran Longbottom who was also a Ravenclaw; and perhaps Mei Chang.

Fran had promised Lionel to keep an eye on Achille and sit on him if he got too friendly with the more dangerous German types. Fran did not seek trouble the way both blood groups did; but she had no illusions and was a central member of the MSHG and as ready to fight as anyone.

And the MSHG left behind were also prepared to fight.

The cynical defenders of Hogwarts had every expectation of attack from Odessa while the Headmaster and the most able of the sixth were out of the castle; it was almost impossible for Gerhardt to resist.

"Unless he goes for Prince Peak instead" said Lydia.

"I think he'll try both, frankly" said Mad "He reacts like a Ravenclaw; and a Ravenclaw always overestimates his abilities in comparison to others. Also he is German; and he has a cult of personality. I betcha he perceives Albus and Severus as the mainstays of our respective schools. It's nice of the free school types to come up on a 'friendly visit' though to be able to 'watch their former colleague if he gets chosen'.

Mortimer had no expectation of being chosen; it would be a laugh if he was, seeing the looks of horror being cast his way as the Hogwarts contingent filed in. The feelings seemed almost to border on physical revulsion! What an absolute hoot!

He sobered.

Probably there were some of the kids at Hogwarts who felt like that when Kinat Gan Konal had started there; Kinat was brave all right!

"Professor Dumbledore" the spare, dark woman who greeted them also looked at Mortimer with some horror. "You trust yourself to muggle transport?"

"Oh I'd rather do that than sail on a rather precarious galleon I think" said Dumbledore "Madam Bacsó, I assure you our aeroplane is perfectly safe; in addition to its normal muggle controls it has a number of magical backup features. Hiding by obviousness; no need for confundment, an excellent solution! Ah, and here is Severus, in a similarly easily hidden conveyance!"

The Prince Peak contingent came in a vehicle that would occasion interest and notice from some muggles – the historians among them – in the same way the Catalina might.

Fired with the enthusiasm for the similarities of Prince Peak to the Schloss Adler in the film 'Where Eagles Dare', David Fraser had lovingly built from scratch the early German helicopter featured in the film.

Naturally it was somewhat larger on the inside than on the outside; and occasioned less comment lifting off from the castle courtyard than a Tante Ju, otherwise known as a Junkers 52, which he had also made thoughtful noises about.

Mortimer's blood sang! Other bloodkin approached!

Four of the youths could he feel in his blood, two girls and two boys; and the tall grim-visaged headmaster with them, half his face ruined with burn scars, though the eye was undamaged and glittered blackly like the other.

All five gave him a quick, appraising look; the girls gave him a brief smile, the boys winked and the man gave him a brief, half nod of acknowledgement.

The blondeish girl mouthed

"What House?" and he replied, mouthing back,

"Slytherin!" for so he had been Sorted after the little ones, and showed around by Lionel Dell, installed in a dormitory with Lionel's cousin Gregory or Grigs, a couple of very nice lads called Godfrey and Gerald and a boy who seemed a loner called Marcus.

The girl grinned in triumph and she gave him a brief 'thumb's up'.

There had been grumbles concerning the Triwizard that Professor Snape had stolen the brightest and best of two years of Slytherin and a significant number of better Gryffs too.

There were affectionate greetings between Hogwarts would-be champions and some of those of Prince Peak; and the merry eyed dark haired girl of the blood song – whom he recognised with shock as Lynx, his guardian's intended wife and mother of small Leona Pardis – looked at Achille Crouch-Villeneuve as though she had found him adhering to the bottom of her shoe after a foray down Umbrous Place North.

Two girls were introduced to the Hogwarts group, Sylvia Hubble and Angelica Hellibore.

"Sylvia's a cousin of your Maud Langstaffe" Jade Snape explained to the Hogwarters. "And Angelica's vaguely related to Mad Lockhart"

Mortimer looked on Angelica with renewed interest; Mad was his brother and also his friend. And of course, Maud was also his sister now! But these two were not bloodkin. For that matter, neither was Mei's brother. It did not always follow though it seemed to sometimes.

There were eight contenders from Prince Peak; nine from Hogwarts and as many from Durmstrang, seven of them girls.

"Probably picked for the relative purity of their wizarding blood as much as for ability" Mei murmured to him.

Mortimer nodded.

That would seem to agree with the ethos of these people. One of the Durmstrang boys did not look prepossessing; and Mortimer would have sworn that he was the child of a hectoring father who took out his frustrations on little kids. He had seen it often enough after all; for in the cramped conditions in the Umbrous Lane complex everyone knew everyone else's business and all about the families living nearby. The other boy did not look unpleasant; he had an athlete's body and an air of dignity. His look at Mortimer was taken aback rather than offended; and he gazed curiously upon the part goblin boy.

"Professor Bacsó" said a flaxen haired girl clearly "Must we associate with the children of rapists?"

"Your young protégé appears to have some odd idée fixée Agata" said Dumbeldore "Young lady, would you care to explain?"

"Well there is a boy of part goblin blood; how can that be unless his unfortunate mother was raped?" she said.

"My parents were married" said Mortimer "My father, who was human, was good looking enough to attract my half-blood mother, he was not as ugly as many pure bred humans are."

The Hogwarts and Prince Peak contingents laughed.

The girl blinked.

"Excuse me? Your FATHER was the human? I mistake" she said. She looked confused.

"Where I live people live together as people" said Mortimer loudly and firmly.

"I am sure that you are happy in whatever …..place…..you come from young man, but we have not the time here to discuss such things" said Madam Bacsó.

Mortimer made her a beautiful bow as Hawke had coached him for Hogwarts.

"Madam" he said with a flourish.

Bacsó burned.

"Dumbledore are you going to permit this – boy – to mock me?"

Dumbledore looked surprised.

"Mock, Agata? He treats you as he would the head of his own school; QUITE properly. I should expect him to acquiesce to a command of mine in a like manner" he said.

Jade dropped a deep and beautiful curtsey to Dumbledore.

"You recall, Professor Dumbledore, there were few manners displayed from certain contingents in the last Triwizard; Madam Bacsó is not accustomed to proper respect being granted her" she said.

"Ah yes indeed" said Dumbledore.

The naughty children were going to play it that way then!

The powder blue carriage drawn by abraxans arrived; and Madam Maxime cried in delight as she alighted,

"Prrofessor Dumblydore 'ow good to see you! Ah and ze good professor Snape 'oo give my nephew a job 'e enjoy!"

Both Headmasters bowed to her and the Hogwarts and Prince Peak contingents bowed and curtseyed as appropriate as she turned to beam upon them.

"Ees it true my good Eengleesh friends zat we have also the 'Ellibore's academy – ah bah, what a name! – to compete?" she demanded "Zat old fool Engelbert 'Ellibore, 'e contact me and ask zat I not mind. Ah bah, I do not mind, 'is boys are as nozzing!"

"Several parents who sent their children to the two separate schools ARE starting to send their sons to me too" murmured Severus.

"Eh bien, when I know 'oo is in charge of what was zat silly creature's girls' academy, I tell my children zat zey must be on zere heels – no, toes – for Professor Snape, 'e is formidable!" she said.

"Hellibore's contacted us all rather at the last minute to request inclusion" said Dumbledore "And we pointed out that the design of the tasks had already been assigned. He seemed happy with that, so we made no objection; if Agata has made no objection either then I should think that five schools will take part. But come, let our young people meet; they may as well mingle while we await Englebert."

If Severus muttered something about 'Engelbert the terminally unready' it was not an audible comment.

The numbers of boys and girls of the French school's would-be champions were reversed; there being seven boys and but two girls. One had a touch of the slav about him as did three of the Durmstrangers; one looked Italian and three had the blonde looks that could pass for English or Germanic.

The groups were exchanging names – not that even Lionel thought he would ever recall them all, let alone poor Mortimer still adapting to all the new names at a new school! – when another flying carriage turned up.

"Ah, Englebert has arrived" Dumbledore rubbed his hands together.

"Try not to rag him too much Albus; I wouldn't say he cheats" said Severus dryly "But he's not gracious in defeat and he tries to be overbearing at any kid he thinks he can bully. I'm glad it's the sports ministries doing the marking not him; because if my Jade is our champion I believe he would mark her zero just because she can do magic he cannot."

Dumbledore nodded.

"Well I shan't be disposed to be uncivil, Severus" he said.

"hmmmph" said Severus.

The tall imposing wizard that was Engelbert Hellibore – one had to admit he looked the part with long flowing white locks and beard – was accompanied by half a dozen young wizards.

Jade was busy explaining to Mortimer and Mei,

"Two of them are brothers of one of our girls, one upper one lower sixth, Cenric and Miles Grant, our Emily's in the fourth and she's a tomboy to keep up with the boys; and Miles has been reading her text books so he might know a thing or two. There's another brother, Anastasius Brewer, Silvina's a wart and she's nothing special and the one that looks like her is the one that looks like a stuck up git ignoring an ice water enema."

Mei giggled.

It did rather describe the supercilious expression of the boy.

"The good looking one is my cousin-in-law Quirinius" volunteered Angelica "He's stepmama's nephew. He's a bit of a nosy parker and reckons he knows it all. Mind you he did know enough to say someone else ought to look at my back; he's curious about you, Jade, I told him YOU fixed it. He didn't feel able to try himself!"

"Well I have been doing transfigurations for rather a long time" said Jade calmly. "Since I was about eight, I think. It's my thing."

"Quirinius reckons that transfigurations is his thing" said Angelica.

Lynx giggled.

"Yes but there aren't many people in the same class as Jade" she said. "D'you reckon you'll win it, or Lionel, Jade?"

Jade considered.

"Wouldn't like to say" she said "I have no formal comparative magic if that comes into anything, though I've picked up a bit; if there's one where we need potioneering or can use it as an option reckon I'm downhill all the way. Good planner, though, Lionel Dell; meticulous. Methodical."

"Hey, what about my chances of being chosen?" demanded Mei. "And Lynx or Fabian?"

"Isn't going to happen" Lynx shook her black curls "I'd LOVE it to be me, but Jade knows things I never knew there were to know. And Mei, my poppet, you on Lionel in a duel might be one thing; but like she says he has order and method and uses er, ze leetle grey cells."

"Lionel has a touch of brilliance" said Jade. "He'll go far. I have a lot of respect for Lionel Dell."

"The Hellibores no chance then?" asked Mortimer.

"Huh, they challenged us to quidditch because they wanted to laugh at girls in quidditch gowns; didn't lay on changing rooms OR refreshments until we asked pointedly where both were, tried to put us down, one tried to jinx me and the seeker wondered at us having a girl as seeker since girls have no sense of direction" she grinned savagely "I left him head down in the mud after I pulled the Wronski feint and an Immelmann turn on him to grab the snitch. Terrible oiks about losing too, really I'd expect better from a bunch of east end muggles!"

Dumbledore and Hellibore were greeting each other with false heartiness.

"So glad you feel you can come out of obscurity now we killed Voldemort!" said Dumbledore cheerily "Excellent that you feel more able to join the modern fight against dark wizards!"

"Er…. What modern fight against dark wizards?" said Hellibore looking distinctly uncomfortable.

"Oh, Odessa, old man; Gellert Grindelwald's grandson and his silliness" said Dumbledore "Agata will tell you, she had a little trouble with an agent planted on her; silly fool got the idea I'd lost my powers and decided – how like such cowards as these supremacists often are – to challenge me when it was then, as he thought, safe! Still, these little matters are sent to keep up our defences and keep us young, hmm?" he beamed.

Several Durmstrangers glowered.

Severus leaned over the blood group.

"Their new deputy is the girl who duelled Harry in the duelling competition" he muttered.

Jade looked startled.

"The one that threw Avada Kedavra? Crumbs! She'll be Odessa then; are you going to stick your eyes down her brain, dad?"

"Jade! WHAT a way to refer to legilimensy…..pest that you are" he added laughing.

The young people circulated a little; and then it was time to go in to supper.

The Great Hall was imposing but sombre; the plain grey stone of the supporting pillars uncompromising and the architecture heavy and overpowering. The house elves passing out food were rarely seen, they were expected to be largely invisible unless summoned to bring anything, and they were ill clad in rags and downtrodden looking.

"DON'T be nice to them, don't say anything" said Jade urgently to the Hogwarts crowd "They'd have to punish themselves for wishing THEIR pupils were nice to them. There's still a compulsion here remember."

The majority of the visitors – Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Prince Peak – leaped to their feet as the assorted professors came in. Some of the Durmstrangers sniggered rudely.

"Whatever low types does this place take that they not rise for their Teachers?" said Jade in fluent German "Poor Madam Bacsó she must be most ashamed of her so rude pupils, there cannot be any good blood left in Eastern Europe at all that such guttersnipes make up the majority."

It was not spoken loudly; but it did not have to be.

Every German heard it clearly enough, though as though it was just at the edge of hearing. So too did Madam Bacsó; who was grinding her teeth that the foreigners thought her pupils so low; and indeed that she had received more courtesy from a blasted part goblin than from her own pupils!

The boys from Hellibore's gaped.

Hellibore was eyeing the silent rising of the Hogwarts and Prince Peak students with deep thought in his eyes.

Several eyes exchanged amused looks.

It would not be long before that was a custom at Hellibore's!

Severus, Jade, Seagh, Lynx and Fabian glided into an unused turret room near where they had all been found accommodation to blood with Mortimer.

"And then Ah'll be awa' tae stick ma snoutie intae ither folk's business" said Seagh.

"Remember you can use the mirror to communicate with Hogwarts if need be" said Jade.

"whisht, quicker tae go!" said Seagh. "It'll aye be weel afther dark that they attack, I'm thinking. And likely mair tai be when we're tied up on the morro' when the champions is being announced."

"See if you can find out if SHE's Gerhardt's agent" said Jade.

"Och, and will ye no' teach me tae use a wand next?" said Seagh with heavy sarcasm , and stepped as though through a filmy veil into – somewhere else.

Jade blew a raspberry.

An unseen raspberry sounded back.

"My brother's part fey" she said to Mortimer. "He's going to poke around in fey space. It's another universe with a semi-permeable interface with our universe and may be entered by using a z-axis rotation of complex numbers, and how nice, you actually follow what I'm talking about instead of glazing over like most people do."

Mortimer grinned.

"Only partly!" he said "I kinda get the gist though. Take me through it more slowly another time and I reckon I might get there!"

"WELL now!" said Jade pleased. "With a touch of goblin in there – the goblin are descendants of the fey – you can probably learn to access it readily enough; and that's another of us can learn without too much difficulty!"

"I can but only by Arithmancy and a lot of faith in having the fey blood kinship" said Severus.

"And the ones that are part Malfoy are three parts fey and the rest loony" said Fabian.

Jade poked him.

"And dangerous. You forgot, and dangerous" she added.

"As a sack full of adders!" said Fabian cheerfully.

"Ah well" said Jade "At least that's acknowledged… I guess it's about time to go put our names in the cup. I wager Lydia COULD have confunded it you know."

"Well I expect we shall find out when it's held next and Lilith manages to get her name in at er, rising fourteen" said Severus pulling a resigned look.

"Oh I back Lilith any day" said Jade cheerfully "You DID specifically forbid her from using feyspace to come and do it this time, didn't you?"

Severus gave her a wild, horrified look.

"I did not….it never occurred….."

Jade took pity on her father and grinned.

"Fortunately however it occurred to me; so I forbade her. That's why she was so snippy when we left."

Severus heaved a sigh of relief.

"Why me?" he asked.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

The Great Hall at Durmstrang was silent as Madam Bacsó read out the names returned by the Goblet of Fire.

"The champion for Beauxbatons is Timothée Picard!" she said. The lanky boy rose came forward and bowed with deep respect to Madam Maxime and politely to the other heads. The French contingent clapped as politely as the rest. He looked a typically French boy with sleek dark hair and olive skin; and unexpectedly green eyes. Bacsó went on "The Champion for Durmstrang is Anett Breuer!"

This was the girl who had made the comment about Mortimer being the child of rape.

The Blood Group and Lionel's people knew – because Seagh had shared the results of his eavesdropping – that Madam Hedda Schrempf the new deputy had given the girl a long and thorough talking to that she should be aware that the so-called 'people' who lived together that the foul travesty of a boy had mentioned were degenerates, the dross of society lost to all shame and incapable of decency or they would not mingle their blood with inferiors.

Anett Breuer had listened docilely and appeared to take it all in.

She turned however to Dumbledore once she had come to the front to take her place, and asked him

"Excuse, Herr Professor, is it true that at Hogwarts you teach goblins as well as part goblins?"

"It is" said Dumbledore.

"Is it that they do not attain a sufficient level of ability to bring to this competition?" she asked.

"By no means. There are two goblins within age at Hogwarts right now; and one at Prince Peak also; But Professor Snape and I fear for their safety under the rules concerning the use by goblins of wands. We did not think anyone would be ridiculous enough to enforce that on a boy who is only q quarter goblin; but with a duty of care to our children we did not wish them subjected to the insult of arrest for something WE do not consider a crime. Your laws differ; such as the permitting of the use of the Killing Curse in a friendly interschool duel on your part. Madam Schrempf will be able to attest to that since it was she who cast it on Harry Potter and as she was not disqualified one makes immediate assumptions." He was smiling genially.

Hedda Schrempf was glowering.

Anett Breuer's face went flat and emotionless.

"I see. Then it is possible we are not facing the best you can offer?"

Dumbledore considered.

"For my part I would say that because of their age – the two girls in age in MY care will not turn seventeen for a number of months – there are those who have come who surpass them. I would place them fifth and seventh in ability amongst my pupils."

"The goblin in MY school lies equal second in all lessons" said Severus "And I resent her exclusion. She is an able witch and flexible enough to do extremely well. Her brother was the first goblin at Hogwarts; he gave his blood for Harry Potter and he bears the same zig-zag scar all of us did who took wounds for him, all who bounce the killing curse thrown so readily by the unscrupulous. Fraulein Breuer you are right to question; unthinking belief in ANYthing is a lazy way to live and ultimately a betrayal of yourself. "

Anett Breuer bowed curtly to him and to Dumbledore.

Madam Bacsó cleared her throat; she wanted to get on. Foolish child! Did she not realise that asking such questions would get her into trouble? Hedda Schrempf would find some way to punish her for that! Of course all teenagers must go through a phase of asking stupid questions and it was better to answer partially and turn their interest aside; as might be possible even now if only the rash Schrempf girl could be shown this, but Hedda had ever been headstrong….

"The Hellibore Champion" said Madam Bacsó firmly "Is Miles Grant."

The younger of the two Grant boys rose, grinning idiotically and came to the front. His brother cheered him enthusiastically; the rest with more than politeness. He managed a rather jerky, ill-tutored bow at the heads.

"Well it's a start" muttered Jade.

"The Hogwarts Champion is Lionel Dell!" announced the Durmstrang Headmistress.

Lionel rose and bowed to his fellows before going forward; and what a difference between his reception and that of the other champions, for all his fellow candidates yelled with enthusiasm – save Achille Crouch-Villeneuve who was starting to complain that it wasn't fair because Dell was too old when Fran Longbottom absently dropped a _langlock_ spell on him. Jade and friends from Prince Peak yelled enthusiastically too; the transplants knew and respected Lionel too.

Lionel was popular with one and all; and if there had been secret hopes harboured that he might be too geriatric to be as good anymore, none really expected any other champion. And Mei Chang, who was a generous soul, cheered as loudly as any even though she knew full well that it had always been between her and Lionel.

The best man must represent the school.

And she would cheer for him and Jade both – she had no expectation of it NOT being Jade – and let the competition see which of those two surpassed the other.

Lionel at the dais bowed deeply to Dumbledore; and to each of the other heads.

Hellibore, remembering his boy's awkward bob, seethed at such elegant courtesy that almost reached caddery in its florid periods to the two ladies.

"The champion for Prince Peak Academy is Jade Snape" announced Madam Bacsó.

Jade was also treated to a shout of a cheer; and from the Hogwarts people as well as her own school. Jade was extremely popular; she had been voted head girl by her own school's prefects. She went up to the dais and swept a beautiful curtsey to Madam Bacsó and then to each of the heads, sinking right down for Severus.

"Domine" she said.

Severus was working on not beaming all over his face.

He inclined his head to her.

And then they were being given the clues.

And the BloodGroup and Lionel and his Bloodkin suddenly froze momentarily.

"And so" murmured Jade "It begins."

It was no surprise.

James Potter was lurking in his portraits in the Forbidden Forest just waiting to give the word of the advance guard.

The Muggle Studies Hobbies Group had been told to hold themselves in readiness; AK47's were all ready in Myrtle's loo under guard by the Malfoy Twins. They had been ready last night – just in case – the New Marauders, Neville, Sephara and Myrtle and Francis Davenport too sleeping in relays with sleeping bags in case of early emergency; but the timing expected was spot on.

James wandered into his main portrait and said laconically,

"Dementors to soften us up and wizards behind them."

Whistles were blown; the MSHG knew what they were for and went to take up positions with the precision of a well oiled machine.

This was what they trained to do; it was scary but in a way it was also their reward for all that training. Nobody not a seasoned warrior would be in the front lines but even small members could at least keep enemy heads down with high velocity rifle fire.

The dementors had not even cleared the forest when the sound of several dull CRUMP! Noises indicated that flyers and foot soldiers had found tripwire grenades and claymore mines.

James nipped back to look.

Hawke counted the CRUMP!s to see how many had been caught. They had probably exhausted most of the explosives by now; it should have cut down their numbers anyhow. James reappeared.

"Nasty buggers muggles; handy to have their stuff. Mind you, as to Odessa, they're learning" said James "They appear to have brought their own firearms."

"What kind? Dammit, of course you wouldn't know" said Hawke.

James laughed sardonically.

"I know well enough to recognise the kind of harquebuses that the goblins used in the last Goblin Rebellion; they have seen firearms my boy and assume that we have obtained such from out goblin allies; a reasonable assumption on their part but indeed so very inaccurate. What do we wizards know of recognising what kind, as you have just said to me? They appear to be breech loaders. I've absorbed enough to know THAT from you reprobates; no ram-rods. Pretty pieces, for a portrait of a part goblin Malfoy to be painted posturing with."

"That was a snidery almost worthy of Severus" said Hawke cheerfully. James gave a mocking bow.

"Why thank you" he said. "They're a bit horrified, the second wave, coming out to see the carnage wrought on their elite by your explosives; Mr Tuthill is to be congratulated for the idea. They're huddled up wondering if it's a death line charm and they've called for a curse-breaker to get them through it."

"He will" said Hawke "I counted the booms; I think they've blown up most things. Another trip for Sirius is called for. How many did they get, can you guess?"

"Dozens" said James soberly "These things have no discrimination do they?"

"Not usually" said Hawke "But then, does a Dark Wizard?"

"Take the point" said James. "We need to use all and any means short of using dark magic ourselves to protect the school. They didn't have to come attacking."

"Exactly" said Hawke.

It was the Mad Marauders who were dispatched to quickly chant up a protective barrier against normal missiles, similar to the one that the Snapes had put around the Quidditch pitch in Belsornia; high velocity bullets would penetrate, and non missiles – like the muzzles of Kalashnikovs – could be pushed through it to fire without any slowing or disruption; but it should at least slow Harquebus bullets and make for lesser wounds even if it did not stop them entirely.

First however were the dementors.

Flitwick, McGonagall, Connie Hardbroom and the staff of the free school together with the most able of the older pupils were preparing to cast their Patronuses to scatter the evil creatures; then each was to be taken down by two casting _Ri-de_ to laugh them to death.

Madam Sprout was organising the more enterprising younger ones in collecting Snargaluff Pods, calling for Peeves to help throw them at the wizards when they came.

Peeves was chuckling evilly; he did not often get to cause mayhem.

"I'll help you, Peeves mate!" said Willow, who had acquired a soft spot for the poltergeist. She had just left work to defend her husband and old school.

Peeves beamed. He adored Willow, the only person he ever had felt kindly towards. She and her offspring need never fear his peculiar brand of humour!

Bella and her group were in charge of pumps and hoses.

With so large an aquifer as the lake it seemed a shame to waste it; and the pumps were easy to enchant to work on their own, quite tirelessly, to command; and a jet of water would go right through defences against magic and would be enough to knock a wizard from a broom. Lydia apparated into the forest.

"Firenze!" she called concentrating on carrying her voice to just one pair of ears. "Evil Wizards come; tell the Centaurs to beware! Trurk! Get safe!" she added, shifting target for her directed sonorous spell.

The Mad Marauders had made some eclectic friends last year; one did not want them hurt.

She returned.

She was busy picking off dementors – none of the blood group felt much of a need for a second person on any dementor – when Trurk lumbered out of the forest.

A dementor detoured towards him.

"_RI-DE!" _ screamed Lydia. Trurk had no defenses against Dementors.

Trurk gazed towards her as the dementor destroyed itself in crepitant whoops of insane mirth.

"Friend" said Trurk. "Dem men wot come, dey bad men?"

"Yes they are!" said Lydia.

Trurk wandered back into the forest. Lydia hoped he had got somewhere safe before the first Stormwizards burst out of the forest.

The first visible wave of stormwizards who burst out of the forest were hurled and landed with sickening crunches.

"Trurk kill bad men" said Trurk. He grinned horribly. "Trurk eat plenty good later. Yeah."

Oh well, serve them right for attacking, thought Lydia, who had other things to worry about than Trurk's safety.

And then they were coming, the sky dark with brooms, the ground covered in running wizards with harquebuses and wands both.

Peeves and Willow made a foray, hurling snargaluff pods, the obscene wriggling green tubers engulfing the heads of any sturmzauberern that they hit. Willow was definitely happier flying under her own power than on a broom; and she and Peeves were singing a rude little song about Gerhardt. To please Peeves it was distinctly coarse.

"_There was a little Prince and he sat upon his throne_

_And he couldn't do the paperwork when the work was done_

_And all of it_

_Was a pile of shit_

_And wasn't he just the smelly, smelly one!"_

It seemed to irritate the invaders quite well anyway, especially after Willow translated it into idiomatic and even coarser German. Lydia winced. Germans did not have subtle jokes about 'thrones' and 'paperwork' for their toilet humour; their idiom was more….direct.

The dementors appeared to have stopped coming.

"How many were there?" Lydia demanded of Hawke, who was nearest.

"We made it about a hundred" said Hawke laconically. "Nice work; you downed half a dozen I think."

"Neville takes two at once; good isn't he?"

"He is rather" said Hawke. "Val, where's Bjorn?" he asked sharply of the volunteer fighter from the free school.

"He started changing" said Valerie worried "Someone called Remus reckoned he should have company and went off with him."

"Ah, no need to worry then" said Hawke relieved "Remus is a wolf animagus; used to be a werewolf but he's all right NOOOOWW as you might say….. stick with Lydia, she'll see you okay."

"Yes Professor" said Valerie.

Lydia grinned at her.

"Your friend's the Bearsark? Handy friend in a pinch but needs careful handling. Uncle Remus really is the works; he's fought Voldemort twice. No need to worry about either of them."

The defenders on the castle walls were having fun with their jets of water; and sharp shooters were picking off hovering wizards. Mad and Chad grinned suddenly at each other, and Mad shouted,

"Jets of water on the ground!"

Hoses were redirected; and two wands froze it under the feet of the oncoming foot soldiers.

Slipping about they could not fire and made much better targets for the Hogwarts sharpshooters.

There was ragged fire from the cover of the nearer trees.

"Unless they've enhanced those bullets significantly the only way they'd strike at this distance is by accident" said Lydia. "Hello, they're not firing at us they're…..bastards, they're shooting the centaurs!"

She sent a blood pulse to Leo; and smoothly they summoned AK's and apparated into the forest.

Firenze and another Centaur were down; and Lydia fired a burst from the hip, wishing she had some Re'em blood to hand as the recoil wrenched at her. Then she was flat on the ground, a smaller target, firing through the trees at the armed wizards. Leo had landed a little way from her; the clearing was a beautiful enfillade.

"Firenze, you and your friend are you all right? Can you get to cover?" called Lydia.

"Ronan is badly hurt…. I will not leave him. We have our differences but we are of the herd" said Firenze.

"Leo, cover me!" Lydia ran over.

Ronan was dying; that was apparent. The bullet was lodged close to the aorta, Lydia thought.

There was only one thing to do.

"Firenze be prepared to cut me and give to him to drink!" she said.

She knew what unicorns were like; and she had seen Krait change often enough.

And she was changing, shimmering silvery white. Firenze gave a cry of amazement; but he was no fool. He was slitting a vein, directing the blood into Ronan's mouth and Lydia wordlessly and wandlessly cast the summoning spell to remove the offending bullet fragment.

Ronan gasped; and swallowed more unicorn blood; regained consciousness enough to say 'WHAT?' and then Lydia was shimmering back into her own form, her automatic weapon jumping to her outstretched hand on mental command to shoot more Odessa men.

Leo was keeping up a good rate of covering fire; and her taking over allowed him to reload.

"Firenze, you and Ronan get out of here; we'll apparate back" said Lydia. "We'll cover you."

"Terrible, evil weapons!" cried Ronan

"Terrible evil wizards" said Lydia crisply "GO GO GO!"

"Let us regroup with the others" said Firenze to Ronan "These younglings are at risk as long as they stand to defend us."

With the centaurs out of the way, Lydia and Leo smoothly apparated back to the castle.

"Where have you been?" Sirius demanded roughly.

"In the centaur of the trouble" said Leo.

"They'd shot Firenze and a fellow called Ronan" said Lydia a little more usefully "We went to help out."

Sirius nodded.

"The centaurs are flanking them; only right to support our allies. Your friend Trurk is amassing quite a nice pile over there."

Trurk appeared to be killing stray wizards and taking them to the pile for Lydia's approval.

She waved at him and smiled.

Trurk beamed his horrid smile and went off to hunt more bad men.

"Crumbs, if Grawp got involved, him and Trurk'd be an army in themselves!" said Leo.

"Oh but think how disappointed the lower school would be!" said Lydia. "I see Gorbrin and Erica and their team have picked up your idea of ice, they're playing musical statues with their opponents over there."

Gorbrin was busy turning to ice single wizards dowsed in the jets from above; almost as an academic exercise. He knew that he and his sisters would be some of the first to die if the Odessa agents managed to take over Hogwarts; but he kept that thought firmly pushed back. Calm was required to work magic properly. And transfiguration was so easy it seemed the best route to go.

The small group of chanting wizards was another thing. Gorbrin knew enough now about chanting to recognise that they were planning on focussing their power, probably to blow away the sharp-shooters.

"Get that jet as near them as you can" he snapped to Bella "Enhance it's power if you can and then be ready to jump back! Ming, to me!"

Bella gave him a startled look but did as she was bid; Gorbrin was very clever.

Ming was looking questions.

"Petra oleum" said Gorbrin "What goes in muggle cars. I transfigure; you set light to it."

Ming blinked and nodded.

"So just wetting them is fine then?" said Bella, catching on.

Gorbrin nodded.

The jet raised and sent a fine sprinkle of drops onto the chanting group as Gorbrin concentrated on changing it from some distance from the nozzle. He nodded to Ming who cast bluebell flames.

The WHOOMPH! Was spectacular, petrol vapour igniting as well as the liquid; and the wizards were engulfed in terrible flames. One had a chance to cast the flame-freezing spell; the others were incinerated almost immediately, standing horribly, blackened, alive but their wands burned, and the fingers too charred to cast any spell, throats burned away as they breathed in the burning vapour unable to speak. Even the one who escaped was decidedly crispy. Gorbrin thought he was unlikely to live long; and called for him to be shot. It was more merciful.

And then the Hogwarts forces made their sally.

At the head were an assortment of large and terrible animals; the Bengal tiger insisting on going first and pretending that he didn't hear Bella's adoring voice declaring him just the fluffiest; a black panther – Cholaka – Sirius the big black hound, Remus the wolf, Bjorn the bear, not as much in control of his intellect as animagi but willing to follow the wolf he knew was his friend. Hawke shrugged into his great Jade Falcon, able to claw at faces with wicked talons nine inches long and sharp as steel. Willow, McGonagall and the two Pettigrews were too small to be warriors; but Peter had come enough to himself to be manning the ramparts with the children. Abraxus paused long enough to tell James; it was fitting that Prongs should know that Whiskers was trying at last.

James' face worked.

"It's….it's still too soon" he said "But maybe….."

Abraxus nodded and laid a finger on the painted shoulder. Then he was on his broom and leading out a contingent of moppers-up.

The Mad Marauders had apparated smoothly in a body to the place where the curtain was. They took their new friend with them; an MG1 General Purpose Machine Gun on a tripod.

The fleeing wizards did not know what they were about to face.

They found out when the sound like ripping cloth became a curtain of death of twelve hundred rounds a minute.

"We have the Maxim gun; and they do not" Lydia murmured the quote.

"It was a Mitrailleuse in 'Fist full of Dollars'" said Leo.

"It's thoroughly horrible" said Polly.

"So my dear would be what they would do to you for daring to be free and carry a wand" said Lydia. "What they did to us in the orphanage if we didn't conform would be nothing on it. These are people who are a danger to the public. This isn't fighting, it's germicide."

The few who survived were being picked off by wand; Mad and Chad more than capable of taking down stray wizards while Lydia fed the belt of ammunition to Leo and Polly watched their rear.

None were to escape; again the tactics of terror were to try to persuade Gerhardt that this was a futile mission. Even if the megalomaniac Grindelwald would not give up, the failure of any of his men to return must surely shake the confidence in him of his remaining troops.

Back in Durmstrang, the feast was proceeding; blood group members absently feeding power to their friends in England or in Austria as appropriate.

Hedda Schrempf rose and banged on the table.

There was silence.

"The farce of continuing with the Hogwarts and Prince Peak contingent becomes superfluous" she said in her harsh voice "For those schools are no longer in the control of their erstwhile heads. Dumbledore, Snape, you are under arrest!"

Wanded Odessa agents burst in the doors. Agata Bacsó jerked convulsively in shock, anger on her face.

This was NOT what she was expecting!

"Dear me, Fraulein Schrempf, aren't you being a trifle premature?" said Dumbledore, amused.

"KILL HIM!" screeched Schrempf.

Green flashes burst from the wands of the Odessa men. Madam Maxime threw herself ignominiously below the table, followed by the Durmstrang staff. Bacsó stood, furious and unable to believe her eyes.

Dumbledore picked a piece of fluff from his robe – imaginary, but still a cool gesture – as the green flares dissipated. The blood group took a collective headache.

Severus smiled.

"They don't learn, do they?" he said. "Rats, I think, my children; don't trouble with leaving their minds intact."

The members of the two blood groups stood up; and each just glanced at one of the invading wizards who started to turn their wands on these defiant juveniles. The squealed in terror as they shrank, grew fur, and ran hither and thither from their suddenly empty robes squeaking in high rodent voices.

For Mortimer, who had never realised that this was possible before even WITH a wand the silent, wandless casting that he too knew how to do now was heady!

"Thank you Severus; a perfect solution" said Dumbledore "Would you pass the teapot? I believe I've worked up a little thirst."

"Certainly, Albus" said Severus, levitating it over and pouring tea without bothering with wand or incantation. "I believe there was just the little matter of Fraulein Schrempf and her premature assumptions…. You really DO underestimate our respective pupils you know my dear; Jade's little sister is still at Hogwarts after all and her little friends, as well as some very able professors; and I know my own staff and upper school quite equal to the feeble attempts of Prince Gerhardt to discommode them. Agata, your new deputy is I think somewhat out of line."

"She is" said Madam Bacsó grimly.

"Eet ees INTOLERRABLE!" said Madam Maxime, easing her not inconsiderable bulk back onto the specially reinforced chair that she had brought for her own use.

The school was in a welter of babble and uproar.

Madam Bacsó banged the table hard.

The noise subsided, somewhat fearfully.

"The…er, excitement is over!" she said coldly "Hedda, I think you should retire. I will speak to you later."

Hedda Schrempf opened her mouth, caught her former mentor's eye and nodded curtly.

Seagh had quietly disappeared and from nowhere the tones of a male soprano sang,

"Gerhart has only got one ball

Gellert had two but verra sma'

Hedda would if they let her

And Von Frettchen has no balls at a'"

He kept the Scots accent mostly under control but it escaped occasionally.

Hedda went several different colours; and only Madam Bacsó's glare kept her moving out of the room.

Severus was trying not to grin. It was remarkably reprehensible of his son; but he had to say, MOST enjoyable!

The sports ministers of the three countries involved were angry too; they had also emerged from under the table and were busy demanding answers from Agata Bacsó.

"I cannot think what is going on" the Headmistress was only partially lying; she had NOT had any warning!

Murphy, the British Sports Minister, rounded on the German Minister.

"Sure, and is this an example of yer German efficiency that ye go on about, begorrah?" he demanded "That on yer own soil ye think ter win by ARRESTIN' the participants most likely ter show yer own candidates up as foolish? D'ye WANT open war wi' Britain? Fer ye're afther goin' the roight way about it, so ye are!"

"Herr Murphy, this is not of the German Ministry an act" said the German Sports Minister "It is as Madam Maxime says intolerable; the woman Schrempf will questioned be and the meaning of this unravelled!"

"Wirra, that's all very well, but can ye guarantee that the children will not again be threatened by wanded ruffians?" demanded Murphy. "It's thinking I am that ye should be layin' hold o' the besom roight away t' be sure, and keepin' her under close guard!"

"Mais OUI, I add my voice to M'sier Murphee!" said the French Sports Minister, a rotund little man who naughty Jade said looked like M. Poirot. "Eet ees not to be born zat such sings 'appen in a school! Zis Schremmmmf female, she ees not sane, and zese rats of wanded men zey are 'orrible people, and we need to know who zey are and why zey come!"

"I can tell you that minister" said Severus. "Hedda Schrempf was, when she threw the killing curse at Harry, a protégé of the Odessa agent Helmut Hesse who was so foolish as to challenge Professor Dumbledore to a duel. The uniforms were those of Odessa. The Wizarding Council will need to know of this; Albus, you will pass it on through the usual channels?"

"Oh certainly" said Dumbledore, smiling gently.

Severus was known as Severin Prince when he was a council member; but he liked his anonymity.

At least the council took serious notice of Odessa and did not sweep it under the carpet as the ministry would have done if it had still had the ruling of Britain.

"Odessa is a fiction!" said the German sports minister.

"Indeed?" said Dumbledore "Perhaps you will tell that to those officers who believe themselves to be high in its organisation that we have captured on previous attacks on Hogwarts? Severus I believe you too have had captives?"

"A few" said Severus "I don't generally consider taking captives worth while. Blood and bonemeal add nicely to our rather poor topsoil however."

"Ah, such a pragmatist as you have always been, Severus" murmured Dumbledore. "I confess we have not taken many prisoners; so many of the creatures we keep to study are carnivorous, there are always ways to dispose of the human and beast remains; and the huorns rot down eventually. Agata, I have mentioned before that you should think carefully before you choose sides."

"You speak as always in riddles, Albus" said Madam Bacsó.

"Well you must go your own way" said Dumbledore. "And I suggest that one way you go is to get aurors in to arrest the Schrempf woman before she flees."

"Yes, straight away!" said the German minister.

The fate of Helmut Hesse was less terrible perhaps than it might have been and as it had been hinted; for Dumbledore had borrowed an idea from Krait and had returned the man to physical childhood, ripping away all but the most infant memories. He now rejoiced in the new name of Perceval Filius Harry Dumbledore and was Dumbledore's adoptive son, growing up in the Hogwarts orphanage and staff crèche alongside Willow and Sirius's and Alice and Hagrid's respective twins, Remus and Tonks' third child and the assorted children of Alexander Chang-Prince with Hilary and Linda.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

The school Durmstrang was subdued.

There were those within the school who supported the ideals of Odessa – many of whom would have liked to have got the contumelious part goblin alone – and the ease with which the nine children had risen and contemptuously turned armed men into rats without even getting their wands out was frightening! Also that Dumbledore had IGNORED the killing curse – though those who were close enough whispered that he too now bore, or had had revealed on him, the zig-zag scar.

The killing curse was not bounced without some penalty; and Dumbledore was joined only to Severus who had managed to raise diffusion spells before the spells were cast. This then had taken a little more effort than if it had been but a single spell on a full bloodgroup member. However Dumbeldore's apparent ignoring of the spell was awesomely impressive.

And the English, they laughed and chatted as normal as though this was not out of the ordinary! Apart from the ones from the boys' school, they were subdued enough.

Miles Grant had suggested to Professor Hellibore that if even the rejects as champions from the other English schools performed wordless wandless magic as a matter of course like that, that perhaps Hellibores Academy was a little out of its league in this competition.

Engelbert Hellibore had been frightened into almost wetting himself; and had been secretly very impressed, which made him answer angrily – for he was as pigheaded as he was inept – that such defeatist talk was not for them!

Miles shrugged and took himself off to the library to try to find some clue to the first task clue that the contestants had been given.

There was a week in which to solve it; and they were to stay here during that time in this cheerless castle.

Miles and his brother had already determined to try to get to know the Hogwarts bunch better; and find out from the couple of boys from Prince Peak what it was like being in essentially a girls' school.

Jem and Fabian and Seagh shrugged.

"We've always been co-ed" said Jem "It'd be nice to have a few more chaps; but most of the girls in our crowd are chaps anyway. Jade and Lydia and Senagra; and Angelica and Sylvia aren't so dusty either. There's even numbers in the new intake, so that's all very nice. And a bit more racial mix too; it was very strange to be in a school of all humans bar Senagra. Sort of….incomplete."

That was an interesting viewpoint; and Miles was a boy to whom finding out and learning was a priority so he filed that away!

They had all read the poem, set by the Beauxbatons contingent.

The riddle read,

_"I have a much resistant hide_

_Though trolls are known to hitch a ride_

_Born to the purple, high I wander_

_Who am I, I hear you ponder!_

_Avoid a gore to avoid your gore_

_And you may then go on once more."_

Jade had read it, looked at Lionel, laughed and said,

"Well that's simple enough, isn't it?"

Lionel grinned.

There were enough clues after all; sharp horns to gore and make you bleed, purple coloured, dwelling up high and occasionally used by trolls. Only the Graphorn fitted that description; though from what Newt Scamander had to say on the subject, more trolls ended up with graphorn scars than ever learned to ride. If he recalled correctly it was worth four stars on the Ministry classification of how dangerous it was.

"Dangerous beasties" he said "But then, so are dragons and acromantula. Got an idea on tactics?"

Jade shrugged.

"I thought I might do what I do well; worked for Harry. You?"

"I thought I might go read a book on bull fighting."

"Lionel! You posy little BASTARD! You're going for a quite?" she pronounced it correctly, keetay, Lionel noted.

He grinned.

"Why not?"

"Heh, easy to see YOU're part Malfoy!" laughed Jade.

"I don't expect to beat you on time whatever I do; so I thought I'd go for massive style and cool points" said Lionel calmly.

He had said it at first to tease; but why not? Graphorns charged at a threat.

Getting the beast to brain itself rather then having to do anything to it was a very good idea, for as well as having hide tougher than dragon hide, the creatures were inherently resistant to spells. Which meant that trying to confund or stupefy it was virtually impossible. Jade had indicated that she meant to use a broom to fly past it and retrieve whatever they had to retrieve – the usual corollary to the avoidance or defeating of the large beasts of the first task – and get out without going close.

It had its merits.

Jade flew like a demon; if not as well as Harry Potter then certainly close. If she pulled it off she would be very fast. Lionel was no slouch on a broom but he cried beat where Jade was concerned.

They had both been on Slytherin's house team after all; and he knew her capabilities rather well.

No, he would rely on getting points for panache and hope to have a task he could complete faster than Jade for the second one.

It was between him and Jade; of that he was certain.

He smiled kindly at the Hellibore boy.

"Tough one, isn't it?" he said.

"I'll say!" said the boy "Completely mystifying clue! I'll have to spend some time in the library and hope to find some lead!"

Lionel did a double take.

"You mean you haven't got the beastie involved yet?"

Miles stared.

"Have you?"

Lionel shrugged.

"Well it seemed rather to leap out with all those heavy clues….. it's in Newt Scamander after all, whom we use for care of Magical Beasts theory."

"Oh, it's not a subject we study…. Will there be a copy here do you think? What was it called? I say, is it cheating to ask you that?"

"Fantastic beasts and where to find them…..the author is Newt Scamander. I don't think it's cheating; you're not privileged to have as full a curriculum as we, that's not your fault. And you so will want to be prepared; read it carefully" said Lionel.

The French boy, Timothée, took himself off to the potions dungeon, for the full facilities of the school were open to the visitors too. Lionel glanced in and was mystified.

"Oh, garrotting gas" said Jade, also glancing in. "That might work so long as he doesn't knock himself out too. A potioneer; I might even talk to him a bit."

"You are such a skill snob" said Lionel.

"Yes" said Jade "You managed to become a potioneer; and that I respect even more than someone who's born to it you know, because it's sheer hard work that got you your 'E'."

"Thanks" said Lionel "It was down a lot to your dad."

"And he couldn't have helped you if you hadn't helped yourself" said Jade. "WHAT a waste of time this is; I shall go and see what dark tomes they have in the library; it'd be worth knowing. And I might just destroy some of them a little bit at that" she added thoughtfully.

Lionel decided to spend his time with Freya and Ross, and they went for long rambles about the countryside.

One day, having seen the lie of the land from a tactician's viewpoint might come in handy.

That he was not the only one was evidenced by meeting Severus, Jade and a selection of the other blood group at various points, both walking and flying on brooms.

The appearance of a grim looking man from around the turn of a path almost made Lionel jump; but he remembered his manners and wished the man

"Guten tag".

The man regarded him.

"If you were wise, English boy, you would not wander too far" he said "There are wolves in the forest."

Lionel smiled blithely.

"Oh ordinary wolves don't trouble anyone Mein Herr, they are more afraid of man than man is of them. And if there are werewolves, well I have killed enough of them not to fear them any more. We in England know what to do with aggressive werewolves." And he smiled brightly.

Odessa had its agents about then.

Hedda Schrempf had been questioned sternly by German authorities.

Madam Bacsó announced dryly that the unfortunate Madam Schrempf had been acting under the imperius curse laid on her by some unknown organisation that wished to upset the competition for the purpose of fixing the betting.

"And I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale" came an audible voice from the Prince Peak table.

Madam Schrempf was said to be too much upset by the affair to come to join everyone else for meals.

As Severus said cynically to the combined Prince Peak and Hogwarts MSHG when they met to run as usual, what she meant was, she was afraid of being legilimensed.

"Too late though" he added laconically "Did THAT the moment I recognised her. I'd give something to find out what she said when she found out neither attack had succeeded though. And what Gerhardt said. I bet he frothed, no Seagh, it's not worth the risk just to satisfy curiosity."

"What about to find out wha' the shilpit wee sumpf is planning next?" asked Seagh.

"He won't be" said Dumbledore "Gerhardt had planned meticulously for everything in the double attack; except one thing. Failure. He was so sure that with Severus and me out of the way he would succeed easily; and when he was stopped dead he was left without an option. He gets rather easily flatfooted."

"Just as well" said Lionel. "Sir, is this ruddy competition all a ruse to get him to overreach himself and hopefully commit so many forces that he's seriously weakened and unable to do anything now?"

"Let's just say it had that as a part of it" said Dumbledore. "Severus and I were not displeased that he went so far as a double pronged attack and committed hundreds of troops."

"Hundreds?" Lionel was shocked.

"Hundreds. Dementors first – and every dementor destroyed is a better dementor – and then wizards. And at Hogwarts, young Ross's idea worked excellently. He didn't use werewolves; I suspect he thinks we treat them too lightly. Krait thinks some might have got away from Prince Peak; it's a hard place to pursue fugitives without getting too close to muggles. But they were defeated comprehensively at both schools. And Gerhardt does not know what to do next; and I suspect his supporters and lieutenants must be getting a little twitchy about his preoccupation with the schools. Strategically he is sound; and he knows that. But not if he can't win. And all his troops must be starting to discuss the fact that people go on missions and fail to return….."

Lionel grinned.

"And so we shan't have to kill them because they might start quietly deserting?"

"One can always hope!" said Dumbledore.

The arena was set up and the contestants waited without. Jade had prepared a broom to summon once she was inside; and so too had the German girl Anett. Anett had spent some time asking Mortimer about his family; and had been impressed by the fact that the boy had not hidden that he was of the lowest, sent to Hogwarts on the sponsorship of one of his teachers in a free school. And also that one of the teachers at the free school was the first goblin to attend Hogwarts, who was from a prosperous family who paid for all of their offspring. Konal had not always been as prosperous as he was now; but certainly to a boy of Mortimer's background he was very well heeled indeed. Mortimer spoke in the words of his mentors of racism being a matter of fear through lack of understanding fostered by partially accurate stereotypes, and that nobody had any right to declare that goblins were this or that unless they had interacted on a long term basis with enough disparate types to say that they had formed their own opinion.

Anett had been taught many things about goblins but she could see that this argument was sufficiently cogent to take it on board. She wished to prove to herself that the received wisdom she had been taught was true; but only by talking to goblins and – revolting though the concept was to her – part goblins, could she see that the wisdom of ages was indeed so.

And this she told Hedda Schrempf firmly.

Schrempf, having had a good talking to by Madam Bacsó sniffed and said that if she got herself killed with such foolishness it was her own business.

Anett agreed equably.

She did not like Schrempf; she had heard some tales about the girl from those higher up the school about the girl who had tried to kill the English duelling champion, though she and Schrempf had just missed each other at school. And as a teacher, Madam Schrempf was unpleasant, enjoying using the cruciatus curse as punishment. If 'the new order' included people of HER stamp, Anett did not want to be part of it; and felt that if Odessa did stand for a new golden age they were a trifle careless in the choosing of their ambassadors in the school. From what had been said by the English there was some generalised callousness within the system that was unwise and not in fact for the Greater Good. The ideals might be good but it did not seem that it was being well run! Such were Anett's thoughts as she prepared her broom and stacked it beside the Prince Peak girl's.

They exchanged a nod.

First to go was Miles Grant of Hellibore, the positions chosen by drawing numbers. The boy looked terrified.

He had worked hard in the library, and had come up with a strategy.

As the great purplish-grey beast thundered at him, Miles pointed his wand at the ground.

"_Paluster!_" he shouted, having looked up the Latin for swampy.

It was a good improvisation; and the reason for suddenly appearing quagmires around the school became immediately apparent.

Dumbledore applauded; it was an excellent way around the boy's lack of education. He had most carefully read that the Graphorn lived high in the mountains; therefore it was reasonable to assume it had no adaptation to swamp.

It was unfortunate that the boy's wand work did not live up to his imagination. The beast was slowed, noticeably; but the boy only just managed to avoid being impaled on its sharp horns even so, and took a horrible gore to one side as the beast lumbered stickily level with him.

Clutching his side, Miles stumbled past as fast as he was able to grab the box at the other end of the arena and out.

Mei Chang grabbed Ross and Mortimer by the hand and apparated to the medical area, where they were joined by Lynx, Fabian, Jem, Erwin and Seagh. The Durmstrang nurse was shaking her head over the deep wound, pumping blood. Engelbert Hellibore was ashen; he was wringing his hands.

Mei and Lynx and Seagh started chanting; and the others joined in. Mortimer was not sure what to do, having barely started learning; but he added what he could and poured power into Mei.

The wound started closing.

Hellibore stared in disbelief and awe.

And then it was closed.

"Blood replenishing potion, bitte, Mein Frau" said Lynx crisply to the nurse.

The woman meekly handed a bottle over and Lynx induced the pale faced boy to drink.

"Are you of Prince Peak all such mighty healers?" gasped Hellibore.

"Oh not in Jade's class" said Lynx "Reckon she might have pulled it off without a chanting group….this is mixed Prince Peak and Hogwarts; and we're all Hogwarts trained. Remember we got honed against Voldemort, sir; you learn awful quick if you want to carry on living!"

"Er….quite" said Hellibore.

Each of the judges awarded Miles seven points for an ingenious use of the surroundings against his graphorn; and he had managed to accrue six time points, and might have managed more had he not misjudged how quickly the beast could charge and been uninjured to retrieve the box they were required to remove.

As his young healers pointed out kindly, praising the lateral thinking.

Miles grinned weakly.

"Had heard stories from Em and Kate about the MSHG…. So I hoped it would work" he said.

If that was gall and wormwood in Hellibore's ears that he had turned to tales he had heard from his much younger sisters at Prince Peak he had enough wisdom to swallow the bitter draught in silence.

Anett Breuer was next.

She summoned her broom rapidly with the _accio _spell as soon as she was in and jinked madly around the charging graphorn and past it to grab the box and fly out unharmed.

She accrued twenty time points for so fast a resolution and received eight style points each from Britain and Germany and seven from France.

Next it was the French boy, Timothée Picard.

He summoned his prepared potion and cast a simultaneous bubblehead charm on himself as he sprayed the garotting gas at the graphorn.

Unfortunately, like Miles, he had underestimated both the speed and the endurance of the creature which was groggy as it gored him but not unconscious yet. Timothée screamed! However, he crawled grimly to the other end for the box and the chanting team were on hand to take over the moment he left the technical arena.

The German nurse had blood replenishing potion to hand right away this time without needing to be asked and smiled a 'bitte' to Lynx's 'danke'.

Jade was next.

Her tactics were to be the same as Anett's; but it was understood that any equipment prepared beforehand that duplicated the choice of another was not to be considered copying unless clear evidence of cheating was involved. Madam Bacsó raised the question of Jade having brought a broom too; and Lionel said laconically

"Yes, she mentioned the tactic she would probably use within minutes of us reading the riddle, as it was so easy to solve. It seems likely that Fraulein Breuer also recalled Harry Potter's use of the same against dragons. She was not within earshot of us however; so you need not feel that England will lodge a complaint that Fraulein Breuer has cheated, for I am sure Jade does not believe she has, do you, Jade?"

"Miss Breuer seems quite capable of making up her own mind without stooping to low tactics" said Jade cheerfully "I do not resent her choosing the same tactics as me, though it is going to be less interesting for the judges since I have the misfortune to follow her."

Madam Bacsó of course had not had the intent of assuring the English that Anett was not cheating but of stirring up trouble to suggest that Jade was. That this other English boy attested to the Snape girl having spoken of her intent within a few minutes of reading the clues put THAT chance out of court; for it had taken Anett several days to figure out the clue, let alone formulate a tactic!

So Jade summoned her broom – without resorting to speech – and leaped to be on it as it arrived in a piece of purely Malfoy showing off. She shot straight between the horns of the graphorn, confusing it utterly in a nice piece of timing that had applause from the crowd. It took her too on a more direct route to grab the box; and she picked up two more time points than Anett.

Murphy gave her nine points for such audacity and elegance of summoning; the French judge gave her eight, one more than he had given Anett for the style; and the German judge gave her six for using a tactic already used.

Jade flushed.

"Which of us used it first was in the luck of the draw" she said quietly "Madam Bacsó was able to clear Anett of copying my idea; she was concerned I might think so but when I was discussing it on the first day, Anett was not within earshot. Are you accusing ME of cheating?"

"If Fraulein Snape formulated the idea on the first day she had the idea first" said Anett "I suspect we both copied the great Harry Potter."

"Quite" said Jade "If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Old English maxim."

"ARE you accusing my champion of cheating?" asked Severus silkily.

The German minister shook his head hastily.

"No of course not! But it is less easy to find style marks when one sees the same thing a second time."

"Domine, so long as I am not accused of cheating, I am content" said Jade "The German markers are as fair as always, as at the duelling contest."

She smiled ironically.

She had accrued forty five points; two more than Anett even with the blatant marking down by the German judge.

And such was making Anett angry too; she was the sort of girl who wanted to win, but she wanted to win on her own merits not by cheating on the part of her countrymen. It had been this desire, to pit herself against the best, that had prompted her to ask about the abilities of goblins left behind; even if she personally doubted that they would be in her league.

Last to go was Lionel, waiting around and running through the chanting he was learning to NEWT level in his own head to keep himself calm. He had started on the syllabus in the holidays, knowing that his auror training would take up much of his time.

And then he was called.

He summoned his red cloak the moment he was in – which is to say he held out his hand and it flew to him.

The Graphorn charged.

Lionel pirouetted to one side, leading the creature after the cloak.

"OLE!" cried a voice from the crowd.

Durmstrang had a Spaniard teaching the study of Magical Beasts; who had presumably set up this contest with the aid of the French who had devised it. Lionel grinned.

He was enjoying himself now, ever the showman; and as the beast charged again he once more flipped the cloak contemptuously past him, leading it on. He strolled down towards the box at the other end, and reached it as the frustrated graphorn realised that once again it had failed to connect.

Once more a flick of the cloak; then he was strolling out to wild applause, kissing his hands to girls, and inclining his head to boys.

"What, no suit of lights?" said Jade, meeting him.

Lionel grinned.

"There is such a thing as over the top" he said.

He was engulfed in a large Spanish embrace, a torrent of Spanish in his ears and kisses firmly placed on each cheek.

As Lionel's knowledge of bullfighting came largely from what he had read in books since arriving in Germany and a little bit about the ritual sacrifice of a bull as a form of blood magic in Spanish magical ritual, taken on by muggles as a fertility ritual, he thought he had done quite well.

Señor Carcano concurred; much to the irritation of Madam Bacsó.

Her staff were not supposed to be congratulating the enemy so fulsomely!

Lionel had gained only eleven time points; but England and France both gave him nine style points, Murphy explaining that whilst it had been well done he could not award a whole ten since any Briton had to deplore the suggestion of barbaric blood sports prevalent on the continent. The German judge gave him eight; as many as he had awarded Anett so he had been at least somewhat impressed.

After the first task, then, it was the French boy who was at the bottom with twenty points overall; and Miles delighted not to be at the bottom, as he had feared he might be, having managed to accrue twenty seven points. The three clear leaders were Lionel on thirty seven, Anett on forty three and Jade on forty five.

Lionel was not displeased.

Eight points between him and Jade was not bad; he had every chance of making that up in a second task, and maybe even in a maze.

The second task was set by Prince Peak; and that would be tortuous, no doubt; but he and Jade would have perhaps some slight advantage in knowing Severus' mind set.

And now they might return to school to get on with lessons and what was, to most of his fellow candidates, important in life; and any who struggled to keep up need not come another time if they did not wish to.

It was likely that Achille Crouch-Villeneuve would not be likely to. As champion he would strut and enjoy himself; but supporting the ambitions and exploits of others was not in Achille's psyche.

Besides he had managed to run foul of Lynx several times over the week they were in Germany and Fran Longbottom and Lionel had needed to extricate him from a succession of intricate and quite ingenious jinxes, the last of which had required half an hour of dedicated chanting on Lionel's part to undo him first from the spherical form, restore the full effect of gravity, remove the tentacles, hiccups and excess and fluorescent farting that in ball form had propelled him around randomly.

The cousins did NOT get on at all well and Achille had not the common sense to leave Lynx severely alone without making snide and often racist comments about her friendships with non humans. For his own part, Lionel would have been quite content to have left Achille to his own devices and left him in Durmstrang to be undone; but it was a matter of not showing their differences off before the foreigners, as he remembered David Fraser pointing out to him when he and Ross were not yet friends. And so he pointed out to Lynx, asking her nicely not to make her dislike for her cousin be a lever for the Germans.

Lynx apologised – to Lionel but NOT to Achille – and promised she would TRY to ignore the little tick.

"I'll try to persuade him to stay home next time" said Lionel diplomatically "It's not like he likes me enough – or even at all – to want to cheer me on. I'll persuade him he'll be happier at home."

"Do. Otherwise I can arrange a non-embarrassing solution of having him live out his life as a frog" said Lynx

"What had he done?" asked Lionel mildly.

"Oh asked me, because I was getting to know Mortimer, if I was going to make my branch of the family even more ridiculous and shamed by sullying our blood with a part goblin brat from who knew where" said Lynx. "A woodlouse might have been a more appropriate transfiguration but he's such a big windbag I thought I'd make him into a big windbag."

"I see" said Lionel. "He really is the biggest creep never to have been expelled from Hogwarts! He won't trouble you again."

And Lionel spoke firmly to Achille as soon as they were safely on the Catalina that he could choose not to come, or Lionel would ask Professor Dumbledore to forbid him on grounds of being disruptive.

"It's that girl Lynx" whined Achille.

"Whom you take every opportunity to insult" said Lionel. "As you haven't gone out of your way to do anything but irritate most of the other people in OUR team let alone the prince Peak crowd I think in the interests of harmony you should do the decent thing – though I doubt you know what decent means – and not come."

"Oh I have no desire to come where I am not wanted" sneered Achille "The popular Lionel Dell has all his own fans ready to blink at the unfairness of him staying on a year and doing down the chances of the rest of us."

"You are an ass, aren't you?" said Lionel amiably "If it hadn't been me, everyone knows it would have been Mei Chang; and next to her you're virtually a squib. If you were the last best hope of the sixth, Dumbledore would have let some fourth and fifth years come along and try their hand at confunding the goblet; because any of a dozen fourth years, let alone the fifth, have a better chance than you. You're a conceited twerp and if you had been second best I'd not have minded that; but MEI doesn't bellyache about it; SHE understands the tacit reason I was retained to do this. And if you don't well you have no business to be told for you're obviously dim as well as untalented."

Achille spent the rest of the journey home having a temperament; or as Fran Longbottom described it, a toddlerish temper tantrum.

Mei just said

"FRENCH you know."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Back in Hogwarts life slipped back into normal.

The new metalwork classes started with Jorbal Gan Thahk, also known as 'The Artificer'; he was an efficient goblin who spent the first lesson giving a lecture on tool care and respecting the tools the students would be working with and the necessity for care and precision.

"If I have to speak more than twice about slapdash work, that student will be out" he said. "Apart from the fact that anyone slapdash will never learn true craftsmanship, carelessness in one way indicates carelessness in others, and that can risk yourselves and fellow students."

"Like potioneering sir" said Lydia Snape.

"Ar, so I've heard" said Jorbal. He had asked to be known as Professor Jorbal rather than use his father's name or the epithet 'Artificer'.

He liked these human children calling him 'sir'; it seemed strange but was gratifying that they acknowledged his skill. Jorbal was not the best artificer ever but he had been reared in old traditions and wanted to pass these on. Clockwork was fashionable; but it was only a part of the various crafts that most wizards put down to 'goblin crafting' as though they were all one, and Jorbal was of the view that craftsmanship was the province of anyone who loved tools and crafting things from scratch.

He had put together a syllabus covering a theory section with materials properties, enchanting theory and something very akin to the muggle science of stress analysis and the ways in which enchanting could extend and improve upon the natural properties of metals. Their practical sessions would cover forge work, the drawing of wire, the production of springs and basic instrument making as well as adding enchantments at every layer of manufacture. Some of this class hoped to cover the syllabus in a single year; Jorbal had his doubts, but seeing how hard they worked he revised his opinion.

It was possible that some of them might manage to cover enough for at least a pass mark.

The younger ones, spending two or three years on the work would doubtless do better. He had a good class of fourth years willing to put their backs into an extra elective; not all the goblins in the year, but the one who had 'Malfoy' as part of his name – and patronage never did any harm – and the half giant boy who made Jorbal nervous at first but who seemed both pleasant and intelligent enough. He and Gorbrin and a boy called Ming had asked if the properties of metals might not also be improved by the use of transfigurational changes.

Jorbal did not know; but he was a big enough character to say so.

"May we experiment, sir, when we know enough of the basics to make us no longer disaster areas?" asked Gorbrin.

"Well I don't see why not, Mr Malfoy-Tobak" said Jorbal "I must say I'd be interested to learn enough transfiguration to have a few experiments myself."

"I'd think, sir, you'd do best to ask Madam McGonagall to help with that; she is a most excellent teacher" said Gorbrin. It was all very exciting to consider combining the magic of goblin and human and maybe too of the fey to produce new and exciting magic!

Gorbrin and his enthusiasms were much what Jorbal had in mind as the ideal student; and all the boy's friends were as enthusiastic. Erica was studying it as an extension of her artistic endeavour; Meliandra out of curiosity, Jazka to stay with Erica. Pearl Brocklehurst was of enquiring mind generally; and in such a spirit too Hugin Corbin was studying the new subject. Hugin had a wide interest base, and Ming said unkindly that he had a mind like a soup dish, broad but shallow. Albert MacMillan as a near squib was hoping that this would be something he could do; and was amazed to find a real talent! Albert was delighted; he was already talented at dowsing as a part of Divination and was also good at cricket, not perhaps important from the point of view of qualifications, but certainly important for Albert's sense of self worth. If he did well at metalworking as well as divination, Albert was even considering staying on to take a NEWT or two, something he would never have expected to be doing when first he came to school!

Jordan Christie and his friend Silvester Crouch-Jones of Gryffindor had also signed up to do metalworking for fun; and Jorbal had been warned that the Crouch-Jones all meant well but could be, well, accident prone.

Jorbal elected to give the boy a try; and Silvester was certainly the least slapdash of his siblings, even managing to produce competent potions; and Jorbal could not fault the care the rather clumsy boy tried to take. He cut himself at least once a lesson but as the boy's friends seemed to look on this as perfectly normal and a selection of absent wands cast _episkayo_ the moment Silvester gasped in pain it did not seem to be a real handicap if the boy was prepared to work through the pain and put himself out.

It was carelessness that Jorbal hated; the boy could not help being a natural klutz and the discipline of a skill needing methodical preparation might even help him overcome his worst klutziness. Silvester was enjoying himself; he was no high flyer and if he could overcome the tendency to find any sharp edge within three miles of Hogwarts – as Jordan put it – he had high hopes of using a practical skill to get a job that would mean less headaches than doing something tedious at the ministry or in an office all day. Silvester was clever enough; and if he had a decent number of OWLs and a few NEWTs too, understanding artificing could give him a job supervising in a factory in a responsible post not just pushing papers about.

Maybe even a job in Weasley's Wizard Wheezes factory.

Might as well be ambitious after all, thought Silvester, blissfully unaware that the height of his ambition might raise a few eyebrows in his family.

Gorbrin was interested from the factory supervision side of things as well.

His stepfather had been carefully ruining Harris Warrington for the man's treatment of Tanjela, Gorbrin's mother; and had bought out Warrington Springs, the primary manufacturing plant of springs in England. Gorbrin took a close interest in all his stepfather's businesses; including the small, private business part owned by all the original Marauders and Lucius making silver bullets for the muggle weapons the MSHG used.

Gorbrin was a modest lad, but he was hoping that his stepfather might give him the responsibility of overseeing Warrington Springs when he left school if he had the requisite skills, and if he did not have the qualifications to be an auror.

It was as well, after all, to have a secondary ambition; and if Gorbrin could not be an auror he did not fancy being a quaestor as second best, but preferred to take part in urban renewal schemes alongside Lucius and write books of social commentary and detective fiction as a sideline.

Gorbrin knew that as a Malfoy, even a step-Malfoy, he would be something of a public figure; and one might as well use that.

He was only sorry that his friend Jardak had elected not to take metalwork; Jardak's reasons being that it was a stereotypical goblin skill, and as a Hogwarts student, Jardak had the chance to step aside from the stereotype.

"I can't understand why you'd take it, reinforcing stereotypes!" he declared angrily to Gorbrin.

Gorbrin shrugged.

"Maybe it's because I've become a stereotypical Malfoy who likes to have fingers in many pies and learn as much as I can about everything" he said "Draco would have taken it like a shot!"

Jardak laughed ruefully.

"From anyone but a Malfoy that would be an excuse….yeah, mate, you really are a ruddy Malfoy, and I guess that makes you nobody's typical anything because the only typical anything a Malfoy is, is flaming awkward!"

Gorbrin grinned.

"ya noticed!".

It was good to avoid a serious squabble with Jardak, his closest friend through the bad times; and to have Jardak understand. He would hate anything to drive a wedge between them!

Erica's concept of taking the thought of moving pictures into moving bronzes was another idea that Jorbal found exciting. Really, he was learning as much from these students of his as he was teaching them in many ways; there was so much to consider about applying wizarding ways to traditional goblin crafts that it was almost extraordinary that nobody had ever thought of it before!

Lionel meanwhile was, in addition to enjoying his metalwork, enchanting and chanting and the laconic directions of Alastor Moody who had personally taken over the boy's training, considering the next clue.

The box had opened easily; there appeared to be no hidden catch to it. Inside was a piece of parchment marked with a few lines and equilateral triangles of varying sizes. There was also the appended note

"All you will need to save your heart's desire from certain death will be there."

Lionel had never studied Geomancy formally; but he knew enough to recognise Geomantic symbols. He went looking for a geomantic map of Durmstrang and regions in the library; and was soon able to orient the unmarked clue map on the surrounding countryside. One might assume that X marked the spot to make for; and so he would need a broom.

Lionel decided to ask Gorbrin if he might borrow his racing broom; even seconds might make a difference to gaining an extra point. And looking at the distances involved it was at least a twenty minute flight by conventional broom.

Gorbrin was more than willing.

"It has excellent cornering abilities at all but the top speed, but if you're just going somewhere straightish, set it on fast and hang on while you stream off it in the slipstream" he said cheerfully.

Lionel grinned.

It was an exaggeration but he knew what Gorbrin meant.

He planned to wear a streamlining helmet and lie flat as well to shave off as much time as he could; brooms were subject to drag as much as any muggle vehicle.

"If you add spoilers just ahead of the bristles it might help too" said Gorbrin when Lionel told him what he planned to do "Like on muggle cars. They cut down the turbulence. And a fairing might help too; we can experiment."

With Professor Jorbal also involved the racing broom grew a few unauthorised appendages and increased its speed in straight flight by a significant margin.

Applying muggle science as well as wizarding things also seemed to improve technology no end; and Jorbal was ecstatic.

So was Lionel.

Jade would doubtless be able to manipulate ley lines or even apparate directly; he needed all the speed he could muster. What he needed to do on arrival was a mystery; but if saving a loved one from certain death was set by Severus Snape one might possibly bet that choosing an antidote from a set of bottles might be guessed to be a probable test, with some mind-bending riddle to figure out which one was which.

Unless one had to use ruddy Golapott and blend one's own antidote?

Lionel groaned, but shrugged.

He knew Golapott's third law, that a blended poison required an antidote that exceeded in composition the sum of the parts of the poison.

He had an 'E' grade NEWT in potions. How hard could it be? They would surely not make one brew a potion from scratch…..would they?

It was pointless worrying about it until he came to do the task.

Revising poisons and blended poisons would do no harm, however!

Lionel was also playing quidditch while the weather held; the games were only really knockabout games but there was the David Fraser Shield to aim for. With the informality of the games, the games played by the second sevens were also taken into account, which actually gave some emphasis to those who had never been quite good enough to make the main house team; and that had to be good for them. This meant that Ravenclaw would probably take the shield; because they had some very good promising youngsters who would have been capped in any other house with less wide and varied talent; and as it was informal, Mei Chang had announced a relaxation of the custom of only playing second years and above since it was just to give the kids experience.

Slytherin had never taken any notice of that custom anyway any more than Gryffindor had; and Hufflepuff were pragmatic enough. Their first years seemed divided between those who were rather good and those who couldn't even stay on brooms.

Lionel actually thought that the informal knockaround matches were in some ways more fun; and having the second seven involved certainly sorted out which houses had depths to their quidditch talent! He thought of suggesting the retaining of a second team's results for the ordinary shield to Madam Hooch. It gave incentive to those who were not QUITE good enough to make the first team, both to stay good enough to remain on the second team and also to strive towards promotion.

Like Mortimer Bane; who had never had the experience to get really good but who had some good instincts and was certainly an asset to the second team, as he was to the school hurley team.

And one of his own team mates had already been scouted; Kate Rosier had been offered a definite job by the Holyhead Harpies after she finished school in July and in consequence was busy signing autographs for small quidditch fans who wanted her name inscribed in their autograph books before she became famous. The more enterprising had taken her photograph in Slytherin Quidditch robes and asked her to sign the photo.

Kate had agreed indulgently.

If one could not do favours for schoolmates, as she said, then one was a pretty poor prune.

Mei Chang, like Lionel, was glad to get back to do some work; but she also had an eye out for other organisations in the school.

The first year were settling down into having a possible group suitable for being the next layer of marauders. The second had two efficient and co-operative gangs; but they were sufficient unto themselves, besides the SAS having its specific goals of fighting slavery.

They would work with marauders no doubt; but they were of themselves and not of the marauders.

The year below was different.

U-may was already blooded; and she, Nathan Malfoy and Charis Rawlins had already patronage from Bella Black and the Belle Marauders. Into that group also fell Isambard Cooper, Jingjie Chang and Wanda Waffling.

Isambard and Wanda would be new blood; but that was not necessarily a bad thing. And six was a good number. They needed careful watching and guidance.

It would be nice too if Stripes would get around to doing something about the nagging toothache the rest of the Blood Group were aware of.

It was Bella who went to see Assim Khan.

"Stripes, who have you got stuck in your teeth?" she demanded

He gave her a look.

"That is not a remark in good taste o best beloved" he said.

"What you didn't bite the storm wizards you mopped up?" asked the irrepressible Bella "Anyway, SOMETHING has to be done about your bad tooth. If you go tiger I can probably get half inside your mouth and see if I can't heave it for you."

Assim gave her an inscrutable look.

"You have much courage my Bella" he said "But unfortunately I have not that much! I would fear to hurt you….. yes it is bad, and I fear to go to Pepperup Poppy since she poisoned me a bit over the fairy flu business."

Bella giggled.

"Get Hagrid to do it then" she said "He's awfully gentle with the animals; and people aren't that much different in the mechanics of how we grow, are we?"

Assim put his head thoughtfully on one side.

"There is much in what ye say" he said. "Thou hast given much thought to my discomfort. I shall speak to Hagrid."

It may be said that the rest of the blood group experienced, and dissipated, a small amount of sharp pain and then intense relief.

Hagrid had never treated humans before; but was quite happy to work on Stripes' tooth if he was in tiger form.

And Assim vowed always to come to Hagrid for healing in future since for all his size he was infinitely more gentle than any other healer he had known!

And Bella squealed with delight that Assim felt better and hugged and kissed him and was playfully cuffed for her pains.

"Assim, why is it snakes that have a special language not tigers?" she demanded.

"Hrrrr" said Assim "Snakes have a long history of wisdom and knowledge; how they are perceived, good or ill, depends from culture to culture. But they have that tradition. They are not the only ones; tigers DO have their own language; do thou but search in thy bloodsong, o best beloved and thou wilt find it; buried. For only on formal occasions do we use it, when it rises in our instinct; or for controlling tigers that are but brute beast. I have never tried it on other cats" he added. "It is…..almost a sacred language with us. Not for everyday use. I believe owls too have their own tongue; that they use to educate each other about where to go to carry messages. I suspect that few wizards have found speaking the language of owls as hrrrrr sexy as that of snakes; and we tigers do NOT advertise out secret tongue. There is said to be a tongue of all birds of which the owls speak but a dialect; the ancient witches Cliodne and Morgana la Fey are rumoured to have spoken the language of birds, and the wizard Lugh of the Sure Hand. And I have heard tales that Rowena Ravenclaw could also speak to birds. Gulliver Pokeby, the famous expert on magic birds may have been able to talk to birds; but it may be that he was merely an expert; and it is unknown too if the first recorded animagus, Falco Aescalon learned how to do so by studying birds or chatting to them. I suspect it is a skill as rare as Parseltongue but exists just the same."

"Gosh, how exciting!" said Bella "Why don't we hear anything about them then and why doesn't it have a name like Parseltongue?"

Assim laughed his big purry laugh.

"Because, my dear one, Parselmouths are scary and dodgy and darkish magicians, as everyone knows; and so they get more of a press! Talking to birds is clever enough, but talking to scary things like Ashwinders or Basilisks… that's news!"

"Hrrrrrr" said Bella disapprovingly.

The MSHG took advantage of the last of the good autumnal weather to have a campfire singsong in their cover as Scouts and planned to put photos up on the school web site to advertise the school mixed scout troupe.

It made more things to look utterly normal with.

The Belle Marauders particularly took their Scouting very seriously and Bella leaned happily and daringly against Assim, who had come in tiger form. Somebody started 'I had a little chicken' with the conventional first verse; and then Bella jumped up and sang,

"Oh I had a little chicken and it wouldn't lay an egg so I rubbed our Padfoot up and down it's leg

oh I rubbed our Padfoot up and down it's leg and that darned old chicken laid a POOCHed egg"

There were groans as the rest sang the chorus at that horrible pun; and Bella, nothing loath, went on to sing that she rubbed Professor Khan up and down her chicken's leg for a curried egg.

For this she was swiped into a more convenient position for a salutary washing by a big velvet paw and Sirius applauded.

Bella subsided into a splutter of squirming and giggle.

"Serve you right" said Drusillina unsympathetically.

Bella, duly chastened, snuggled up between Assim's great paws with her head on one of them; in utter content and comfort.

The end of October brought the Hallowe'en celebrations with Hagrid's outsized pumpkins.

Hagrid had less outsized pumpkins than he had intended; one had fallen prey to one of Kevin Slugworthy's outsized slugs. Kevin had apologised abjectly to Hagrid who had forgiven him.

Hagrid had a weakness for children who kept unusual pets after all.

As Kevin was also trying to breed a multicoloured slug by crossing his outsized slugs with a streeler Hagrid took quite an interest in the boy. It should be an easy thing to do; after all, streelers were snails, albeit rather exotic ones with their venomous slime and colour changing properties; and slugs were snails without shells. Kevin was indifferent to whether the slime was poisonous or not; he just wanted multicoloured slugs..

Apart from being a pumpkin short, the celebrations went with a swing, though the school wondered what it was that Madam Black, joining the staff for the feast, had whispered in Professor Black's ear to make him go so red.

Willow had reminded Padfoot of the Hallowe'en when they first got together physically.

She was graphic.

Willow had plans for her Padfoot; and wanted to get him into the right frame of mind.

.

After the party it was time to settle down to hard work again for the end of term tests; and Mafalda Prewett, after having opened up somewhat the year before was back to doing her best to make snide comments and outdo everyone else.

"You're a fool, Mafalda" said Bella "You're only going to bring those migraines back. Or make yourself into a squib by overwork. Your parents are guilty of cruelty to you if they can't accept that you're as good as you are and aren't Hermione Granger. Look, if you stop making an ass of yourself I'll ask you to stay at Malfoy Manor for Christmas. And if your parents want Lucius to solemnly swear that you've carried on studying he'll tell them that you've done as much as was necessary and what's more he'll be sure you learn something to tell them 'cos he's a great gun with stories that you learn stuff from without actually having to strain your brain."

"Yes it was good coming in the long hols" said Mafalda "Only mum and dad said I had to put in five hours study a day instead of four the rest of the time to catch up."

The Belle Marauders exchanged looks.

"Padfoot" said Bella.

They promptly dragged Mafalda off to see Professor Black; and managed to get out a more or less coherent tale of how Mafalda's parents expected her to study daily in the holidays because she shouldn't be below a house elf in class.

"But Mimi's a ruddy Snape, they were born swots with dickers to suckle on!" said Padfoot.

"EXACTLY" said Bella "But according to those prize prunes, if I recall rightly she must only be 'parroting back what her master has said'."

"Hmmm" said Padfoot. "Well having a kid subjected to that is a clear case of abuse; I'll take it to Professor Dumbeldore. And I'll also write a stiff letter to these precious parents of yours about how I dislike hearing their racist comments second hand about the daughter of my best friend allied with some foolishness designed to make a delicate and highly strung child ill with brain fever. Are they actually sane, Miss Prewett?"

Mafalda shrugged.

"I think they just have fixed ideas" she said "They're painfully, embarrassingly racist and they won't listen to facts because they've made up their minds and a kid can't know anything regardless that I've talked to more goblins than they've ever even SEEN."

"Well, leave it to Albus Dumbledore" said Sirius. "And don't you go fretting yourself into a fever; you're one of the best geomancers I've ever had, and if you get a 'T' in every other subject you'll still get a grade to walk into a job as a guide with your excellent place sense. It's as uncanny as David Fraser's; and he's the best pupil I've ever had before you! Just come back to the MSHG and do as much homework as you need to; and you'll be fine."

"If I could equal Mimi I guess they wouldn't mind so much" ventured Mafalda.

"If you don't get a break, my girl, the only house elf you'll be equalling is poor stupid Winky" said Sirius grimly. "Bella, you lot keep her nose AWAY from the grindstone. I'm going to get the head to issue orders that only a certain length of time of revision is permitted daily on top of normal lessons; and it won't be long I assure you!"

"Thanks Padfoot!" said Bella.

Sirius sighed.

Breaking Bella of calling him affectionate nicknames in school when she wanted to show her approval of him was going to be harder than it had been getting Willow not to do so.

But then Bella was an original; and quite a law unto herself!

Dumbledore went to see the Prewetts; and managed to terrorize them suitably. Apart from pointing out that Professor Snape had a law suit just waiting for their racist remarks about his adoptive daughter HE had a law suit just waiting for parents who thought that cruelty to children was a good idea; and that schools had holidays for a purpose and that was for the good health of the students. He asked if they wanted their only child confined in a mental ward from being driven into a total breakdown; because if they did he would immediately institute proceedings to have her taken away from them. And if not, he would suggest that they acted more like parents and less like slaver drivers. He was biting and angry; for Albus Dumbledore hated parents and guardians who stood in the way of the health and happiness of his pupils. And that Mafalda was scarcely one of his favourites did not weigh with him.

Indeed if the Belle Marauders were getting involved, it was likely thatit was the parents who had made the child unlovable.

The Prewetts were induced to make an unbreakable vow not to make the child do extra schoolwork than set holiday assignments as a test of good faith; Dumbledore did not trust them not to 'forget' without that added incentive.

And meanwhile the Belle Marauders sicked Mafalda onto Gorbrin and Meliandra who were also book lovers with the suggestion that they form a bookworm club or something and share story books around.

Not that keen at first to have a younger child wished on them, Meliandra and Gorbrin were nevertheless kind enough to Mafalda; and found her to fit in with them well enough once they found out that she was quite content to just be handed a book she had never read before and left to get on with it in companionable silence in some secluded den.

"Not like ruddy Mimi Snape who will ARGUE with the books she's reading!" said Gorbrin with feeling.

Mimi giggled.

"You should hear Mother Krait when she's reading 'Transfiguration Today' on some of the fatuous writers about what is and what is not impossible!" she said.

Gorbrin grinned.

"That might actually be entertaining; but listening to you argue with a detective over how stupid he's being isn't" he said.

"Some of them are" said Mimi.

"Some writers are better than others" said Gorbrin "We don't generally read those authors who use built in variable stupidity to advance their plots; you picked a bad batch because you WOULD assume that because Witch Weekly heralds Agate Crystal as the Wonderwitch of Whodunnits that she can actually write. She cheats. She doesn't put in clues and she has her auror do things like make a visit to the ministry to look things up in 'a certain office' without giving you any clue what he's looking up; then has him pull all these extra facts out of he air at the end. After having firmly ignored all the facts introduced earlier, most of which are spurious or should have led to him realising who's boffing whom or whatever – which is what you were arguing with. Her Polish auror is a wild mix of the socially inept and stupid and too meticulous to actually bother to record his facts in case the reader finds out about them. Sorry, rant over!"

Mimi grinned.

"All right, I'll try some of your books in the next hols" she said equably.

All of which made Mafalda much happier though she did get a letter from her parents couched in rather hurt tones that they hoped she did not think that they had anything but her best interests at heart and that they never meant anything but well by her and that they hoped that she was well. They managed to hint at how hurt they were too that the elf's supposed parents were so litigious and hoped that their darling baby had not had to suffer from those who were ridiculously swayed by the more lunatic of rights movements.

Mafalda, who actually rather liked Mimi for her readiness to help and be kind, balled up the letter and threw it at the wall.

Bella, who had no shame, retrieved it and read it.

"Crumbs!" she said "They write to you the way one writes duty letters to maiden aunts who sent you either something knitted that you can't identify or a baby doll suitable for a much younger child for Christmas. Almost makes you want to start a letter 'Dear Mr and Mrs Prewett' rather than 'dear mum and dad' doesn't it?"

Mafalda sighed.

"I guess they just don't live in the real world; they have their little fantasy life of how the world is. They started it I think to avoid worrying about Voldemort; I'm still not sure they believe he ever existed or think he was a figment of the ministry imagination or even an invention to get political change. The only paper we have is the 'Quibbler'; dad's a friend of Xenophilus Lovegood."

"Crumbs!" said Bella "He's a nut he is; no wonder your parents are weird! I say, you're tremendously lucky not to end up like Luna Lovegood who's almost as bad!"

"Well at least she talked about fighting Voldemort sometimes when I saw her" said Mafalda "And I used to read the 'Prophet' and now I read the 'Times'. And we had a daily charwitch who talked to me so I knew a bit more than I might otherwise have done. Luna has a baby girl called Artemis who's three and Luna reckons she was fathered by a moonbeam. By comparison to that I guess my parents are almost normal."

"Crumbs!" said Bella again. "Hrrrr. Poor little sprout. Do you see much of them?"

"A fair bit" said Mafalda.

"Then it's your plain and bounden duty to try to give the poor brat some kind of stability and reality to break the mould of nuttiness, even as your charwitch helped you" said Bella.

Mafalda pulled a face.

"Must I ?"

"Well you don't want her tagging after you and being embarrassing when she's old enough to speak clearly, do you?" said Drusillina "If she's brought up daft she will you know. If you teach her what's what she'll be less embarrassing when she follows you about. Far better to have her asking if you'll play quidditch with her than asking if you'll take her to ride crumple horned snorcracks."

"Crumbs yes!" agreed Mafalda with feeling. "I take your point. People might think I was teaching her that crap!"

Mafalda had a selfish streak – which was scarcely surprising as she had needed to take care of number one rather more than a lot of kids – and that could be manipulated.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

There was a decent fall of snow over the next week and the Belle Marauders collected up their first year protégés to make snowmen.

"We need eight good ones" said Bella.

"All right, we buy" said Nathan "Why eight?"

"Because if we're to enchant them to dance an eightsome reel it's how many you need" said Bella.

"Well how was I supposed to know we were going to….oh never mind Bella, arguing with you is like reciting poetry with a mouth full of nails balancing on treacle" said Nathan.

Bella beamed at him.

Madam McGonagall declared herself 'sair affrontit' to hear assorted juniors chanting

"Trebuna, mercoides, trecorum satis dee" to considerable effect.

"Remarkable" said little Flitwick.

The snowmen were not apparently aware that it was not a proper spell any more than the suits of armour had been; and duly lumbered into a rather adipose and decidedly stately eightsome reel.

Dumbledore watched from his office window chuckling delightedly while Phineas Nigellus complained that it made a mockery – a mockery, sir – of having properly constructed spells when juniors had the cheek to cast NEWT level spells with MADE UP WORDS of all things!

Charis Rawlins was delighted! She wrote and told her grandfather all about it, sending him photos as proof.

As Charlie Rawlins had been up at Hogwarts a few years below Sirius Black's parents, he was delighted to hear that the current generation of Blacks – namely Bella – were so much nicer!

Meanwhile the tireless snowmen danced on their lumbering and mindless dance until they started thawing and melted away still trying to do the grand chain.

"Well look at Calvin and his snowmen" said Bella, somewhat obscurely from the point of view of anyone who had not read Calvin and Hobbes.

As her set had all read the cartoon books they nodded sagely; and loaned copies to the first.

"What can we do next?" asked Isabel Nightshade "We haven't actually done anything BAD for ages."

"We could break bounds and confund sheep to spell out rude words in the fields for people flying over to see?" suggested Bella.

"Sheep are too stupid" said Maud "They're stupid enough to forget they've been confunded and just wander off."

"Next time it snows we can confund rabbits to hop and spell out rude words with their feet" suggested Isabel.

"If we can only figure out any words rude enough to count" said Mimi regretfully "I know we're a bit more sophisticated than the parrot in 'funnybones' but even so….."

"We could make then write 'Go Lionel go!'" suggested Bella.

"Crumbs, that's almost virtuous!" grumbled Isabel.

"Jelly in the gumboots of all the sixth then?" said Bella.

That was voted an excellent compromise!

"WHAT am I supposed to do with Bella Black and co?" Fran Longbottom demanded of Lionel.

"Well as burning at the stake is a bit passé for a prefect punishment I guess it'll be poetry impots" said Lionel "What have they done NOW?"

"Filled all the sixth's wellies with jelly transfigured just enough to be akin to slug slime" said Fran.

"They didn't do mine" said Lionel mildly.

"No; apparently it's an unwritten law that one doesn't rag the Triwizard champion" said Fran.

"Thank goodness for small mercies! I shall have a Bella free year!" said Lionel. "I'm not supposed to be here to be head boy when not head boy. Are you just asking for suggestions on a poem or are you actually feeling despairing old thing?"

"Oh well, I suppose they haven't been TOO bad this year….. dancing snowmen are fairly innocuous compared to what they can get up to. You reckon a poem?"

"They'll expect a tedious impot; they take their punishments with good grace after all" said Lionel "Or make them see how many words they can make from 'Wellington boots' no less then three letters and at least an hour to work on it."

Fran brightened.

"Brilliant! And that's why I'll never live up to you!"

"Don't forget my head boyship commenced with the arrival of Bella and co; I've had two years to evolve Bella-squashing strategies. You're still a neophyte. You'll get there!" said Lionel with slightly mendacious encouragement.

Fran did lack a trifle in terms of imagination; though she was respected well enough.

She was however surprised and not a little impressed when all the Belle Marauders managed well over fifty words each, indeed, when she counted the lowest was sixty two from Isabel.

Even if she was uncertain whether to count such words as 'loo' and 'bling' as proper words.

It took Mimi to come up with gems like 'ogle' and 'towelling' and 'glint' of course.

It had kept them quiet for a long time though and Bella asked if there were other words they could dissect for fun and an informal contest.

Fran set them 'Transfigurationist' as the best word she could think of on the spur of the moment as she was doing her Transfigurations homework.

It was a new game that kept them quiet for hours!

Fran blessed Lionel for his fertile imagination and told him all about it.

"Oh well, it beats hangman I suppose" said Lionel laughing. "Milk it all you can while they're still interested!"

"I shall!" agreed Fran fervently!

It was the run up to the Yule Ball again.

Gorbrin and friends were to go this year; and had their new gowns ready.

Gorbrin had no worries about who he was going with; he and Meliandra were going together. They had fallen into such easy comradeship the idea of NOT doing things together was moderately unthinkable.

Gorbrin had however learned lessons from his stepfather; Lucius had told him never to let a woman feel taken for granted, and he had duly asked Meliandra.

"Oh, I thought we were a couple as given" said Meliandra.

"Well yes, but I have impeccable manners" teased Gorbrin.

"You do too; you have some of the nicest manners I've ever seen in a boy" said Meliandra seriously. "You're a real gentleman, Gorbrin; and I guess that's down to your mum and your real dad with only a bit of Lucius tacked on 'cos things like the way you act come as naturally to you as breathing. And that's learned from the cradle not in a hurry when you go up in class."

"Well I guess so" said Gorbrin "Mum always like nice manners and dad reckoned that the way you behaved defined you even more than the way you talk. And Mother Narcissa says what makes a lady or a gentleman isn't their wealth but their manner."

"And I've heard Lucius say that what defines a gentleman is knowing when to stop being one" grinned Meliandra.

Gorbrin laughed.

"That's my stepdad!" he said

Some others of the class were sorted out already; there was never any question but that Vasilica would go with big Mischa; and Jardak and Jazka knew each other well enough to be happy together. Erica and Clementine took the bull by the horns and asked George and Mardo Monk of Hufflepuff, it not mattering much who went with whom since, as Erica said cheerfully they were all friends. It was a boy heavy year; and the adoptive brothers were glad to get picked! Ming Chang asked Pearl Brocklehurst as her group were a bit girl heavy and as he liked her; and Hadrian decided that it would make Stacey's life easier if she was able to tell her mother that she was going to the ball with a Malfoy and not an adopted one at that. Hadrian might only be a son of Lucius' half brother Vladimir, but a Malfoy was still a Malfoy to the ex mistress of the Goblin Entrepreneur, as the one time crime lord liked to be known.

Jordan Christie and Silvester Crouch-Jones decided to emulate to some extent Leo and Chad of the previous year and go in drag; except that they both dressed in drag and importuned Wilfrid Crabbe and Darryl Zabini.

Zabini was taking Hyacinth Greengrasse, a pure blood witch whose family had no money; and who figured that Zabini, who was wealthy, would do very well for her as he cared about blood status.

Darryl Zabini, being the way he was, started talking prenuptial agreements.

Hyacinth answered quite seriously.

"Sad gits" said Gorbrin, overhearing.

The oldest would be out of the castle; for the Triwizard team was to have a Yule ball at Durmstrang and they were much pitied.

Fran may not have managed the most spectacularly original decorations in the world – she went for a warm theme of red and gold and used cloth drapes, baubles, and enchanted singing gold birds that hatched out of the baubles to trill Christmas carols. This was one of the spectacularly successful toys from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes from the fertile brain of Garjala Gan Golgo, who, speculation was rife, was about to marry either or both of the Weasely twins as a means of them holding on to her genius forever.

Moving into the lucrative Christmas decoration market was a coup for Fred and George; like the more mainstream aspects of their firework endeavours it got a wider customer base than the tricks and jokes they had started off with.

It has to be said that the red and gold theme was not universally popular; red heads like Heather Burns complained that she had no choice but to clash, and those with pink or purple gowns looked awful in front of the red drapes.

Still, on the whole the colour scheme was forgotten in a welter of uncertain footwork, and the usual mix of romantic fervour and lovers' tiffs.

The younger ones thought anything with that good a buffet was a success whatever the colour scheme.

And Jordan and Silvester had great fun winding up Crabbe and Zabini who both rose beautifully.

Freya Tuthill, also without a permanent partner, joined the rump of the Mad Marauders – Mei and Mortimer being in Germany – and went with Mad Lockhart while Chad and Leo paired up more conventionally this year with Polly and Lydia.

Nell Pettigrew went with her Theo of course; and this year Peter Pettigrew ventured out to watch the festivities and see his little girl enjoying herself.

Theo had finally decided on his animagus form and had decided to go with the name and be a weasel; another rodent to go with his little friend's rat form and capable of keeping up at a run, even if running weasel was rather funny to watch with its odd loping gait.

Nell was delighted.

The music this year was a mix of recordings on the new gramophones; which would have been perfectly adequate had not some perfidious person introduced a second gramophone playing muggle punk rock in competition.

The secondary gramophone was quickly run to light and disabled; and the culprit had made his or herself scarce.

There were those who suspected the Belle Marauders especially when prefects were dispatched to check on them and found that they were virtuously in bed in pyjamas with pink scrubbed night time faces just glowing with far more innocence than any innocent child had a right to, as Kate Rosier reported.

As Bella said later, it was a most awful scrum getting their PJ's on over their clothes in such a hurry!

In Durmstrang it was a much less jolly affair.

The decorations were heavy and traditional and about as inviting, Mei reckoned, as an offer of an enema as the second course.

There were a few floating candles, some very aryan fairies whom Lionel confided to Mortimer and Mei he half expected to give Nazi salutes as their part of being decorative – which at least raised a brief chuckle – and much greenery decked at arithmantically precise intervals with gold baubles whether the placing suited them or not. The Hogwarts crowd were glad they had only brought a quorum of celebrants!

The champions had the afternoon to pick partners to lead into the Ball; Lionel noted that Jade had picked one of the Durmstrang staff members, the Spaniard who had so liked his own performance.

Lionel grinned at Sylvia Hubble who had her hair up – at least it had started up and was already escaping – and said,

"Hows about you dance with me and I'll see if I can turn your hair white with tales of your cousin Maud?"

Sylvia gave a gurgle of laughter.

"Oh I'll dance with you but I'm immured to the exploits of my cousins; cousin Rose is in the second this year and I assure you, she's enough to drive anyone to going white overnight it they were going to!"

Lionel laughed.

"Then let's swap stories of the tribulations of a prefect's life with junior Hubble moments!" he said.

"That's a deal!" agreed Sylvia.

Mei meantime was asked to dance by the Hellibore champion, Miles Grant; the French champion chose a German girl not, Lionel thought, on the team.

Mei twinkled at Miles and agreed.

"I say I am really chuffed not to be last" said Miles "I reckon any one of you could beat all the best of the rest of us."

Mei considered that thoughtfully.

"There's about four of us that's true of in Hogwarts and three of the Prince Peak team because Senagra can't come" she said.

"Well, I'm glad you don't hide in false modesty" said Miles. "I suppose you've actually got a boyfriend?"

"Yes I have. But if that was an offer, I'm flattered; we reckoned you and your brother were the nicest of the Hellibore crowd. Reckon we'll see you both on the social circuit?"

"Well, that's a definite maybe" said Miles "We're not much up the social ladder you know!"

"Oh well, we must exchange addresses; and I'll get you to the fun parties" said Mei "What I count as fun parties" she added grinning "Are the ones where Lucius goes – Lucius Malfoy – with the express intention of upsetting someone pompous just for existing and flaunting his wives. The girls just love upsetting the stuffy!"

"Is it true they get on? I really find that hard to credit!"

"Oh gosh yes; they're plainly devoted to each other as well as to Lucius. We knock around with the family; my friend Lydia is Lucius' niece – Jade's sister – and Mortimer is Hawke Malfoy's ward. We convene for half the hols in a tent in the ground of Malfoy Manor to plot wickedness!" she twinkled.

"Sounds like you have a good time."

"Rather! Right, I'll get you and – Cenric, wasn't it – invited up for a few days when we're all there, it'll be a hoot!"

Mortimer was approached by Anett Breuer.

"You will perhaps my partner be?" she asked a little brusquely.

Mortimer made her a beautiful leg.

Hawke had rolled in with a really fine ball gown – 'so as not to give those snobby German gits anything to talk about' as he said – in rich russet that matched his hair precisely, trimmed with embroidery in blue and gold couched threads. He looked rather good.

Anett curtseyed.

It was not a bad curtsey.

Mortimer kissed the air above her hand with a flourish, just to prove that he knew how to do it properly.

Anett grinned.

"Courtly, aren't you?"

"Good coach" said Mortimer laconically. "Hawke – my guardian – likes to make sure to take the wind out of the sails of the pompous. All these Malfoys are the same."

"You're the ward of a Malfoy? Dear me, and all the comments about your low status fall awry then!"

Mortimer shrugged.

"I'm the ward of a Malfoy because of my father's death and me being academically inclined and fairly well talented" he said. "Hawke wouldn't let me sink into obscurity earning my own living. I owe him everything" he added softly.

"He sounds a wonderful man" said Anett.

Mortimer grinned.

"Don't get any ideas; he's a wonderful man who's taken. Lynx is only waiting to leave school to wed him. She hasn't come, I see; probably sloped off to be with him instead. Jade is more than capable of holding her own."

"She is rather formidable" said Anett. "What you said about seeing for myself - I'm going to try it"

"Go looking for goblins to talk to? Be careful" said Mortimer "My knowledge of poverty – though things are changing slowly in England – is that there are some places where you'd be murdered for your clothes, nothing personal but because what you might wear as everyday represents a week's meals to a large hungry family. Dress down a bit – plain robes – keep your wand loose and go where there are broad streets and plenty of occupants. Even if you're a temptation there, there's more risk that a miscreant might get ratted up by his fellows."

"You are saying that goblins are thieves?"

"No Anett; I am saying that amongst the very poor, human or goblin, there are those who are thieves; either from inclination or, more often, from desperation. We still have neighbourhoods even with the changes in England where you tread warily. I can cite you half a dozen desperate rogues I know of, two human, two half goblin, a goblin and a half troll. In England it is becoming that those who are desperately poor are those too feckless to work; but it is not entirely so. This is why the free school was started; to teach wizarding qualifications to the poorest who are bright enough, to give them better chances of better jobs. And the new qualification, the DOE, the Diploma of Ordinary Endeavour tests half a dozen subjects at the level of end of fourth year exams, just to show that some formal education has been achieved. It makes a tremendous difference. I have six OWLs; and I'm taking five NEWTs. And even a couple of OWLs makes the difference between a man supporting his family in comfort and in struggling to feed them. Hope helps destroy crime as much as policing; hope and socially responsible programs in the community. And where there is despair is also hatred; so beware. Go in daylight. Don't go far from a main wizarding or muggle highway. Make sure someone knows where you are; and be back at a specific set time. If anyone demands money with menace, give it to them. If anyone threatens you, tell them that your father knows where you are and will be collecting you soon, even if it's a lie. Walk proudly but not arrogant; try not to swagger. Look in control but not in command."

"It's very hard" said Anett.

"For you posh types? Yes. Hawke and his twin Abraxus had been knocking about in my part of London since they were thirteen or fourteen, getting the feel. One boy is much like another. And our poor neighbourhoods are mixed race. I suspect yours are not. You will stand out. But do not try to disguise yourself as anything like a street vendor; you wouldn't hack it. You don't have the manner and you couldn't sing out the wares properly. Dear me, Madam Schrempf appears to be retiring to bed; must be something Professor Snape said!"

"She fears him" said Anett.

"Well she might" said Mortimer "She loosed the killing curse on Harry Potter; and Harry Potter was Severus Snape's ward, being one of Harry's dad's best friends."

It was a reasonable simplification.

"Yes, she does have reason to fear him" said Anett "He fights Odessa too…. Are you part of those who fight Odessa?"

"Of course" said Mortimer "They are loathsome worms of creatures who, crawling in the dust of inadequacy, would drag down and destroy anything that is fine lest it show them up for the invertebrate lackwits that they are."

"That was a nice phrase!"

"I think I caught the habit equally from Hawke and Lydia; and they caught it from Lydia's dad – Professor Snape" said Mortimer. "I say what awful music!"

Anett pulled a face.

"It is rather, isn't it? And not very politic to have music by so blatant an Odessa supporter! And besides, one can only do two-steps and the like to such military music. Hello, what's happening?"

There were brays and whinnys of horror from the musicians and suddenly a Viennese waltz struck up.

"That's more like" said Mortimer with satisfaction "I can do this one!" and he whirled her onto the floor.

The musicians, raging, were trying to get up and failing; and the instuments played on with romantic fervour.

Anett was laughing at the antics of the musicians.

"Oh they must have been held down with permanent sticking charms!" she said "Who's doing it?"

"If I had to put money on it, I'd say Jade" said Mortimer "Possible Severus himself; conceivably Lionel but I think it's too smooth a charm for Lionel. Jade is by far and away the best witch of her age; terrifying girl!" he grinned.

"Not your girlfriend then? Her sister is perhaps?"

Mortimer shook his head, a little ruefully.

"I rather think, though Lydia's not sure herself yet, that she's going to end up with her childhood friend Leo" he said. "I don't have a girlfriend; though I am friendly with a number of girls. We are a group of seven, Leo, Mad, Chad, Lydia, Mei and Polly. Polly is the first free elf to come to Hogwarts."

"Donner und Blitzen! That is extraordinary!"

"Perhaps; I think most people are used to it. There are a number of half elves who were born in dubious circumstances and rescued by people like Lucius Malfoy sticking their inquisitive noses in. And there is Mimi, who is Professor Snape's adoptive daughter and therefore Jade and Lydia's sister. And to them she is their sister and her race they do not even notice. They do not notice the race of their friends either. I find it rather wonderful; there is status according to your blood and the mix you are even where I come from. Not as much; but status there is. Many goblins despise those with some human blood. And part breeds sort according to what blood predominates. It is foolishness; and the attitudes at Hogwarts highlight how much foolishness it is."

"You are good to talk to me so frankly."

"If you purpose to stick your neck out and your nose in, you need to be spoken to frankly. You are too beautiful and intelligent a girl to throw away your life for the lack of some common caution. And I must say I wish you also the best of luck."

"Thank you; I may need it."

"Prepare well and you will make your own luck. This is a Polka; I haven't a clue what to do with a polka so I shall surrender you to the scowling boy who wishes to claim your hand."

Mortimer bowed punctiliously and kissed her hand again and bestowed it very properly into that of her waiting swain.

She was quite a girl!

Just for fun he waited for a dance he knew and bowed to Madam Bacsó to ask if she would dance.

The way she fell over half sentences backing out was highly amusing!

Not that all was sunny back at Hogwarts.

Leo and Lydia danced together; and Lydia was pensive.

"Where are you Lydia?" demanded Leo.

Lydia sighed.

"Dancing with my own special brother whom I love deeply as such" she said "Leo. I'm sorry, and I've tried most awfully hard; but the idea of being married to you is about like being married to Jade. Sort of a bit silly. And you don't really fancy me either; you fancy the idea of fancying me because it makes a symmetry being Mad Marauders together."

Leo scowled.

"We could make it work" he said.

"We probably could; but why settle for good enough if there's the chance of something more?" said Lydia "Leo Black- Weasley are you telling me it's as simple as you being too lazy to get to know another girl better than me?"

Leo flushed.

"Not entirely" he said. "All right then who is it?" he demanded belligerently to cover his embarrassment "Mortimer? 'tisn't Chad I'm sure!"

Lydia flushed.

"I rather fancy it's the only one who's ever made me feel nice in a grown up sort of way" she said in a small voice.

"Viktor Krumm?" said Leo catching on.

Lydia nodded.

"I – I was thinking about him to try to get romantic about dancing and that's neither right nor fair, to you or him" she said. "And I can FEEL him….. I'm sorry Leo."

"Huh, well, at least we know he's a tried and tested warrior" said Leo sniffing.

"And you aren't feeling so out of reason cross about it because you're not really jealous any more are you?" said Lydia.

Leo considered.

"I think I'd be jealous of Mortimer even though he's a Mad Marauder because he's – well, new around the place" he said "Or if it was a total outsider. I guess you DID save Viktor's life."

"We all did" said Lydia. "But I did get very involved with the chant; it's almost as intimate as the blooding to save someone like Willow and Padfoot and Grace and Draco. He…. I guess I love him" she said.

Leo gave her a rough embrace.

"Dammit, now I shall have to do my own work finding a girlfriend!" he complained.

Lydia touched his face.

"Will you have to look so far? You're a bold bad hero to half the Belle Marauders I wager!"

"But they're only little girls!"

"Time is likely to cure THAT soon enough" said Lydia dryly. "Besides, you'll have far more chance to train one up to be a nice wife than you ever did with me; I've been FAR too set in my ways and stubborn too."

"Well there is that" said Leo. "I am disappointed. Awfully. It seemed such a good idea to get sorted before we did any romance crap. But you're right" he added sadly "The romance just isn't happening, is it? You might just as well be Lynx!"

Lydia laughed.

"Well far better to talk it out now than carry on trying to please each other and not getting anywhere. I think your jealousy is from protectiveness; you want to make sure I pick someone you approve of."

"Yeah" said Leo. "Yeah, and I guess I do approve of Viktor; it just means you'll go away" he sighed.

"We'll all likely split up physically when we leave school, best of friends" said Lydia "But we'll always be joined by blood and love; and we'll all hit the ground running if one of the others is in trouble. Viktor is going to settle in England when he retires anyway; he's planning on applying for the job of coaching the Chudleigh Cannons when their coach retires. He's playing until Sekunder Singh is old enough to take over from him on the Bulgarian team. So I shan't be out of the country long. And there are such things as visits you know!"

Leo nodded.

"It seems so….. so much more of a split than Mei being with Mad" he sighed.

"Nonsense!" said Lydia "Viktor belongs to the Mad Marauders too! Now then, stop looking like a wet weekend or I'll put the tarantallegra curse on you!"

"Hah, and from anyone else that would be a cliché!" said Leo. "Well, I just hope he feels the same way; if he don't I'll knock his ruddy block off is all!"

"That's my best blood brother" approved Lydia.

She knew how Viktor felt.

He was less accustomed than the 'old hands' in the bloodgroup to blocking his feelings.

And he thought about her a lot.

He was giving her room to grow up and make up her own mind; because he was so special and kind.

And Lydia had made up her own mind.

Viktor Krumm was hers and she was going to have him.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Lydia sent a rather tentative blood pulse to Viktor as soon as she was on the train, in the hopes that he might find time to come to England some time over the holiday.

She did NOT expect him to actually meet the train!

The sight of him so unexpectedly completely overwhelmed her equilibrium and she almost fell out of the carriage into his arms and was kissing him with fierce intensity.

Viktor was not about to pass that up!

Leo sighed, laughed, shook his head and removed Lydia's totally forgotten luggage from the train for her. He could see now how right it was.

"Oh Viktor, I'm sorry I was silly over the summer" said Lydia.

"But no, Lydia, it was not silly; it was entirely sensible to wish not to be mistaken in your heart" said Viktor earnestly "I hoped – of course I hoped – but I am not such a churl to not give you room!"

"You are wonderful, Viktor" said Lydia "I think I knew when I saw you so hurt; but I let my silly mind get confused with assumptions and other things."

"I feel Leo and he is not upset about it" said Viktor "I am glad; he is my blood brother and he too helped save my life. But I will still my distance keep; I will not upset your studies."

Lydia sighed.

"I so am tempted to marry you as soon as I have finished my OWLs" she said.

"But no; that is an idea that is too impulsive and not like you at all" said Viktor "You are capable of a large number of good NEWTs; it is foolish to throw that away. It would disappoint your parents and also in future years our children. The risks to me are smaller with so large a group of belonging. And we will have a large, social wedding after your NEWTs, not because either of us want it, but to thumb our noses at Odessa; and maybe bring about reforms on the continent, yes?"

Lydia hugged him.

"Yes Viktor" she said "We will be crusaders. And" she sighed "We had better board our children with mum and dad if things look hairy."

"Excuse, 'hairy?'"

"Dangerous" translated Lydia

"Ah! Yes I see. Perhaps we will work out of Prince Peak. It is to be a specialist school; perhaps as well as music and art, with Ron and David there we may also make it a school of quidditch excellence for those intending to make it their career."

"It's a thought" said Lydia. "Practise matches against a blood group team wouldn't half hone skills. Though I'm not sure I'd be entirely happy to have a school full of Me-first Murrays; and of course there will be also the likes of the Caterwauling Crow, AKA Amos Leroy."

"But my darling, if there is a whole school of dedicated geniuses, then the fact of being a genius becomes ordinary and that in itself should, how you say, knock off the corners."

"There is that!" Lydia brightened. "Then you shall teach higher quidditch and I shall teach Junior chanting so poor old Alcithoë Bat can get retired off and just be trotted out to play the piano so she doesn't feel unwanted."

"Excellent; and a good cover" said Viktor "So, my darling, you need your NEWT in chanting to teach."

Lydia grinned.

"I was going to enter it alongside my OWLs" she said "As I have an OWL in chanting; Lucius thought that saving you constituted an OWL for all of us involved."

"It was rather a harsh impromptu exam" said Viktor. "And how glad I am that you knew what to do, and shall we to your parents' home now retire since several small people mime being sick?"

"Brats of weevils" said Lydia without rancour. She slid her hand into Viktor's, grinned at Leo who was guarding her trunk, and prepared to depart, giving an absent two fingered cuff to Nathan and Isambard and Jingjie for their display.

Viktor and Lydia went out to Austria for part of the Christmas holidays to be with Jade when she married her Wulf and prepared for the deep joining; and Jade hugged Lydia.

"I'm glad you got it sorted out in your own mind" she said "I knew you would but it was no point telling you who I thought you'd pick. BEST of sisters, be happy!"

"I shall" said Lydia with composure. "What's this Anett like that Mortimer says might be turnable?"

"A bit Gryffindorish" said Jade "But I think I like her an awful lot; she'll do I reckon."

"I AM a Gryffindor" said Lydia mildly. It was a long standing joke; but a 'she'll do' from Jade was worth eulogies from almost anyone else.

It was a good family Yuletide; though Viktor also wanted to spend some of it with his siblings in the Hogwarts orphanage and take them for treats. Zvetelina was delighted that Lydia was to be her sister after all, and hugged and kissed her affectionately. Stoyan was less demonstrative; but he was not displeased.

Lydia was a good sort of relative to have; she was a Marauder and that brought its own cachet to a brother-in-law elect of such!

Later in the holidays, as the Mad Marauders entertained Viktor in Obscura Alley, they were all aware of a joining to the blood; and Lydia nodded.

"So Anett turned out even more than a 'she'd do'" she said. "And another child…. Well Viktor, I think we'll be working with her then."

Viktor nodded.

"This seems likely" he agreed.

Ross Tuthill was a bit taken aback to be accosted by the famous good looks of Gilderoy Lockhart as he waited for the stragglers at the station.

The famous smile beamed.

"Ah, little boy…. I think I am supposed to find a train… teaching eager young minds you know" he said. "Would you like my autograph?"

"I think it's better, sir, if I get your son" said Ross firmly.

"I have a son?" said Gilderoy Lockhart.

"Yes sir; Amadeo Hero Lockhart" said Ross, managing to remember what Mad's official prenomens were.

"Amadeo…. I don't think I recall…."

No, thought Ross, because you're such a selfish git I don't suppose you remembered you had a son even before you got hoist by your own petard with Ron's wand. He smiled and went in search of Mad.

Mad and Chad both came out; Mad had not yet cut the curls his mother liked him to have in the holidays and looked sufficiently artistic for Gilderoy to enjoy the effect of his 'own beautiful son so like his father' and promptly posed for photos with his arm in an affectionate pose around Mad's shoulders.

Ross phoned Morgan Malfoy-Green and asked her to alert someone from St Mungo's who must be going frantic. Morgan had a direct communications device to St Mungo's since the affair of Richmaya Crouch-Jones.

Mad and Chad told Ross that they'd miss the express if need be and see that Lockhart got back, using the Marauding way back as they said mysteriously.

Ross had a vague idea about the Loo network – its existence was not so closely guarded a secret from HIS bloodgroup as it was from the rest of Hogwarts – and he nodded thankfully.

Isis Pince had turned up with a filthy goblin child by the hand, beaming myopically through her thick spectacles.

"This is Azara; she needs a place in the orphanage" said Isis.

The child was about six.

"You're an orphan are you, Azara?" said Ross, pleasantly, looking into the child's eyes.

"Yah" said the child, looking sideways.

Ross had picked up some legilimensy from Lionel.

"Isis, you poor prune, this young person is already an accomplished little liar" said Ross, sending a blood call to Arjelan and Cholaka. "Her mother is probably going frantic right now….Arjelan, Cholaka, please will you restore this small horror to her proper milieu? She's told Isis a tissue of lies in the expectation of a soft life; you'd better disabuse her that she could sit around all day doing nothing as a scholar."

"How do we then get to school?" asked Arjelan

"Catch up with Chad and Mad at Wendy Malfoy's; they'll let you go with them" said Ross, in the expectation that the Marauders were good sorts like that.

"And you, brat, give back that purse" said Arjelan, grabbing the child's wrist and extracting Isis' purse from a pocket.

"Gosh!" said Isis "But she's only a babe!"

"Yeah; a hell-born babe at that" said Cholaka "Maybe if she WAS an orphan, Gran Fraser might have had a chance to turn her into a decent person; but somehow I think it's too late. You, Azara, whatever your name is; if you want to do well in life, you give up stealing from people who aren't rotters and you work hard at the free school when you're old enough and maybe you'll turn out okay. Huh, and I reckon I'm wasting my breath" she added. She and Arjelan heaved the sullen child off in the direction of the tube while Isis stood looking bereft and bewildered.

Ross patted her on the shoulder.

"Hey, kiddy, it was a good and worthy impulse of yours" he said kindly "And I applaud you for it. Only I fear you got taken in."

"People didn't ought to be so dirty and ragged and feel a need to steal" said Isis.

"No" said Ross "They didn't. But one thing you WILL learn if you mean to get radical about the ills of society my dear child is that there are some people who will remain thieves even if they don't need to; and some people who are profligate, and some people who choose to live in squalor even if they don't have to. Talk to Gorbrin Malfoy-Tobak; he and his family lived in the poorest conditions after his real dad died before his mum married Lucius Malfoy. He wants to do social reform."

"Thank you; I shall" said Isis.

By this time a nurse from the Janus Thickey ward had arrived and was hustling Gilderoy Lockhart away. Mad and Chad need not miss the train; and Ross 'phoned Wendy Malfoy and asked her to see two girls through the other means or by floo; and explained quickly.

Wendy laughed.

"Never a dull moment for the train whipper-in!" she said.

Ross had to agree!

Fortunately the journey proceeded with no further mishap save that of Lydia testing a new curse on Leonard Baddock when he was stupid enough to snap at Polly Kirrin in a fashion that might be construed as next door to racist.

For the rest of the journey Leonard dared not move his feet for the sounds of honky-tonk piano music that accompanied any such movement.

As Lydia said,

"You don't go out of your way to be as much a creep as your brother so I go out of my way to drop only mildish jinxes on you."

Lydia had plans on returning to school.

She had discussed Odessa so extensively with Viktor that she decided that it was a good idea to protect Perceval Filius Harry Dumbledore, who had once been Helmut Hesse, from being turned back.

And she spent the journey on writing the notes to allow her to do just that.

She left Polly sorting out her kit to go to the nurseries straight away while Leonard played what might be dubiously described as music by the act of walking on the platform; Lionel Dell could sort him out if he was so incompetent by the fifth form that he could not dejinx himself.

The ritual involved a lot of Finnish naming magic as well. Lydia was studying comparative magic and had pulled together a chant that was, truth to tell, something beyond NEWT level comparative magic, let alone chanting, to change a true name.

When she had finished, even mandragora potion brewed with the application of a chant of Hesse's true name would be insufficient to change him back; because it would no longer BE his true name. Lydia had run up to Dumbledore's office and invaded his bedroom to acquire some hairs from his hairbrush – a beautiful tortoiseshell thing with a patent self brushing charm on it – to transfer the essence of the kinship to the infant. As she chanted the hairs disintegrated and turned into pure light that streamed into the slightly bewildered baby; and as the ritual reached its culmination the light blue baby eyes changed in hue and became the bright piercing blue that was characteristic of the Dumbledore family. Lydia smiled in satisfaction. Now he was blood of Albus' blood, his son in truth. It would have been much harder had she not been able to find hairs with tags on; that had been a bonus for flesh was flesh when all was said and done.

And she picked up the little boy to give him a cuddle, for now he was safe.

Perceval never minded cuddles.

It may be stated that Albus, playing with his son the next day, noted the slight change to the eyes and used his wand to check the baby out; and was startled to discover that the boy was in fact now a Dumbledore.

It did not take long to work out who might be responsible for that; and Albus smiled genially on Lydia when he next saw her. Like her father, her acts of kindness tended to be secret and hidden.

And she had blossomed in ability since no longer in Jade's shadow; and that too was very good.

And Perceval had good friends to see he grew up as a good and well loved man should he, Albus, die of old age before the lad was grown; as was not impossible.

After all, he had not expected to survive to see Harry's children since he had anticipated being a sacrifice in the fight against Voldemort.

He had everything to live for; all the children he had been especially close to in those years, Severus and his children, and this wonderful boy Perceval who had become so very dear to him.

The weather was cold but held dry and the children were able to get out in the daylight hours of their leisure and walk on the cold, crisp ground with frost crunching under their boots and breath rising in clouds around them as the low sun turned bare black trees into fairyland things of wonder with the frosty sparkles flashing all colours on the twigs like diamond-encrusted decorations; and grasses and ferns were things of filigree silver delight finer than any goblin jewellery.

And such Gorbrin photographed assiduously and asked Erica to paint to get the effect so he might use these patterns in his own metalwork to make gifts for his mother and the other mothers as he designed from the pictures and filled a big scrapbook to show Professor Jorbal.

Jorbal was impressed.

"You've an eye for beauty that makes you almost as much an artist as your sister young Gorbrin" he said. It had taken him some adjusting to come to terms with the fact that Erica and Gorbrin were brother and sister and saw each other as such; but in his eyes it was an excellent thing to be fostered.

"Thank you sir" said Gorbrin "I hope I'll have the facility with my fingers to do with metal what she can do with paints."

"You have more facility with your fingers than your sister if you ask me" said Jorbal "She has the ability to make working drawings; you make them live in metal. I think if you worked as a pair you would be very successful jewellers. Your touch is to the delicate; if you ever make weapons or cutlery I suggest you stick to the smaller end; fancy silver knives for the potioneer with discernment and such."

"A self-chopping knife would be a handy enchantment" said Gorbrin "And one made from scratch could be more easily attuned to the desires of the potioneer in terms of fineness of a cut, or even speed. Perhaps a huristic knife that you show what you want; that's the point of a really good goblin enchantment, isn't it, a degree of almost intelligence in what is made?"

Jorbal nodded eagerly.

"Godric Gryffindor's sword knows when it is held by a Gryffindor; and if the wielder is worthy too" he said. "It of course is a great artefact; and producing such has a part of the crafter's soul in it for it is like siring a child, it is a part of you."

"And I suppose one has to be aware of this and not put too much of one's self into more commonplace items to avoid burning out from sheer enthusiasm" said Gorbrin.

"Yes – to an extent that is true" said Jorbal "It depends how much WILL you have how much you can recover from what you put in. For some there is but one masterwork in them. For others there is the ability to craft many. I do not teach you here how to make master works; only the art of metalwork such as any muggle whitesmith could teach; and on top of that the basics of how to lift your craft into the realms of magic such as no muggle could imagine or envisage."

Gorbrin was happy.

This was wonderful!

As he had taken on this extra OWL he had also applied to take a couple of his OWLs a year early.

Jade Snape after all had gone up a year with all her subjects at his age; Jade was exceptional of course and had been learning theory since she had been just a tot. But he had every expectation of being able to pass, and pass well, at Potions and at Transfiguration already; for both came easy.

And he had been told that he might indeed take these two early if he undertook to study the extra work.

Doing extra work AND twelve subjects left little time for anything else; but it would drop his workload next year when it was the most important.

And frankly, for potioneering, he had read through the whole of Arsenius Jigger's book and found nothing new in 'Magical Draughts and Potions'; as indeed he was using Libatious Borage's 'Advanced Potion Making' for much of what he did at home. And he had read through Emeric Switch's second of his three books on Transfigurations over the summer holidays and had been tempted to purchase the third because it was so interesting, and was guiltily aware that he should not be able to cite Gamp's Laws of Conjuration not his five exceptions.

When he trotted out Gamp in an argument with Madam McGonagall over her introduction to conjuration she looked at him in exasperation.

"Weel, laddie, if ye ken fine yer Gamp ye'll no' gae far wrong in Trrransfigurration but whisht! Bide a wee syne ye talk aboot NEWT level things when ye're in the FOURRRTH!"

Gorbrin grinned.

"Sorry professor McGonagall" he said.

"Ye're no' sorry in the least ye wee sumpf!" she said with a twinkle in her eyes that belied the harsh words.

Gorbrin LIKED Professor McGonagall; she was one of life's special people.

Gorbrin was also glad to have transferred to studying care of Domestic Magical Animals; it was to be offered at OWL for his group and Madam Grubbly-Planck had been hired on as an extra teacher, so that the class might split, some to Hagrid for generalised and wild creatures, others to specialise in domesticated beasts. Though it was Hagrid who introduced them to Thestrals, since he had domesticated and reared most of them; the only domesticated herd in England.

Not everyone had wanted to swap to the domestic beasts; Jardak considered tame animals a little, well, TAME; Mischa wanted to learn from his adopted father and Vasilica did as Mischa did. Jazka too wanted to learn about wild beasts; as a town-bred girl who had never seen the countryside until she came to school, like Jardak, it was exciting. Ming was just keen on the idea of seeing big dangerous beasts up close; and Hadrian was negotiating furiously to take both exams and had asked for a time turner just to attend those two classes.

Being the son of a muggle vet and being genuinely interested in animals, Dumbledore had agreed; and Hagrid was to hand him the time turner at the end of HIS lesson and Hadrian turned it in to Madam Grubbly-Planck at the end of HERS.

Gorbrin was interested in domestic beasts for one reason only; horses.

He had learned to ride at Malfoy Manor, the ordinary muggle horses Lucius also kept and the magnificent flying horses that were his pride and joy, six Granians to draw his carriage and a selection of others – not all pure bred – for riding. Lucius had explained that his father, Abraxus, was named for one of the horses of Aurora the Dawn; the reason Krait's mother had been named Aurora. And Abraxus had been named for the familial connection to the Withers family, now all but extinct save in the Withers-Weasley line after each line in turn started producing only girls.

"Alastor Moody has Withers blood" Lucius had explained "A great old family. The only branch that I think still has a full surname is muggle now; maybe there'll be muggleborn Withers some day. I bought out a lot of the stables from old Damian Withers who died childless; his niece married my grandfather. One of the other branches struggled on a few more generations and then nothing but daughters and miscarriages. Fortunately one of them landed a Black-Weasley who was amenable to change his name to Withers-Weasley. Hellibore and Cackle educated I'm afraid the whole boiling of them nowadays; still with Severus at Prince Peak perhaps they'll send their boys to him instead. Hellibores aren't hot on magical creatures – as you saw in the Triwizard first task. Prince Peak has David Fraser; and he's a very sound man."

And Gorbrin loved the horses; he could quite see why the eccentric Lord Stoddard Withers who had lived in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had tried to combine quidditch with polo. He read the old man's book on the subject – Lucius had a copy – 'Quiddpolo as a new and healthful game' published in 1755, not that long before the old man's death. He talked Draco and some of the older ones into giving it a go and whilst it was not so thrilling as quidditch it had the extra thrill of being in partnership with a living mount; for the safety of the horses it must perforce be a less risky game but it was still fast and skilful.

Gorbrin had suggested to Lucius that he show on the Wizarding Wireless Vision a couple of teams playing as part of an educational series on selected famous wizards, in the hopes that if televised it might excite more interest.

Lucius had laughed and said 'why not?' for his father had tried to revive it and got nowhere; and it would be a fitting memorial.

In consequence of which Gorbrin was probably more knowledgeable about flying horses at least than any of the others in the class save perhaps Hadrian who was keen on all animals. He was less interested in such beasts as crups and kneazles – especially crups which in his opinion were only slightly less frightful than the blast-ended Pekes. Kneazles were fine; the resident Gryffindor kneazle was friendly enough to those who weren't bullies, and though Gorbrin had not had her give birth in his lap as she had done to Hadrian at the end of the last term she would butt against him on passing happily enough. More of interest to him were hounds with more or less magical capability; Lucius kept a pair of part fey hounds and an albino bloodhound against nogtail infestation in his farmlands; and these albino hounds were touched upon in the lessons, for the Department of the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures [Pest subdivision] also kept a dozen of such creatures for the purpose of sending to deal with nogtail problems. Lucius' albino hound was a registered stud to help keep from inbreeding with these.

Naturally Owls were a major part of the lessons too, and the domestic familiars that were not QUITE ordinary creatures; the major problem with their care was the prevention and cure of outbreaks of chizpurfles. Nifflers were uncommon pets but as many goblins kept them they had been added to the list; as were firecrabs, which like Kneazles and Crups required a licence to own. Madam Grubbly-Planck assured her students that a pass in care of domestic magical animals would in most cases fast-track a licence application in the future as there WAS more specialisation; and as they would study disillusionment as part of the course, which was what was required to be permitted a licence to own such.

And at the larger end of the scale they would look at Hippogriffs and even griffons and sphynxes, the two latter as guard beasts, not requiring a close acquaintance except at NEWT level but covered in theory. And they would use a book by a later Withers, Amnias Withers, 'The Training and Breeding of Flying Horses'; which also touched on thestrals, the only written work that did so for Amnias had been convinced that if they could be domesticated they would prove excellent carriage horses. The school edition had an afterword written jointly by Professors Hagrid and Fraser on the realities of Thestral domestication and training; which meant Hagrid had talked a lot and David Fraser had turned it into intelligible prose.

They were also given a recommended reading list which included 'the handbook of hippogriff psychology' and Aristides Black-Weasley's 'Dangerous Rodents of Britain'. Judging by the number of things that had bitten him and left him in need of medical attention this was, for Mr Black-Weasley anything bigger than a harvest mouse.

Or maybe anything at all; for Gorbrin found he had also been bitten by a shrew.

The interruption to the lecture on Buckbeak as a typical hippogriff was, however, rather startling and quite frightening.

There was a loud explosion at the edge of the Forbidden Forest; and most of the MSHG hit the ground, going for wands in case it was some new incursion of Odessa.

When nothing else violent happened they made their way, with Madam Grubbly-Planck leading, to see what had occurred.

It turned out to be the last Blast-ended skrewt – Krait had not managed to transfigure all of them and Hagrid had smuggled the ones she missed surreptitiously into the Forest – dying of advanced years and exploding from the gasses of morbidity.

The stench was indescribably foul and the whole mixed class – Hagrid's contingent having come too – fleeing in abject horror with arms over their faces and breathing through sweaters as gas masks. Gorbrin put up a bubble-head charm which was rapidly copied by most of his friends.

"Pore old thing" said Hagrid sadly, viewing the scattered remains of his erstwhile pet.

Only Hagrid could get sentimental over something quite that loathsome.

The blast ended Pekes could at least be loosely described as domesticated creatures and Hadrian had spent a weekend helping Hagrid treat one that had suffered from blowback and roped Gorbrin in to brew a soothing potion to be squirted into the appropriate orifice.

Kevin Slugworthy's wretched Streelugs, his cross between Streelers and slugs, were probably in the same category; and as he had bred them without resort to magic not even illegal.

They were actually moderately benign; unlike the Streeler their slime was not venomous and was laid down in a kalaidoscope of colour that matched the colour the creature was when it laid down that particular slime trail. The colour changes were less bright than the Streeler, a subtle permanent shifting of what might be described as antique shades, nothing vivid or glaring. Kevin was delighted with his pets, which were fairly outsize as slugs went, about eight inches long. They had no use whatsoever save to be decorative – if you liked that sort of thing – and to produce abstract art wherever they went.

Kevin christened his slugs Jackson, Pollock and Kandinsky known as Kandy for short.

Erica said they were a lot more decorative in her view than either Jackson Pollock OR Kandinsky.

Kevin asked for some help with permanency charms to seal the slime and let his pets loose on paper then proceeded to sell the resultant artwork appropriately mounted with such pretentious titles as 'A muse of magic', 'Quintessence' and 'Mind-trails of reflection' and had the cheek to ask if Lucius would accept one as a gift to lure others to buy.

Gorbrin and Erica had laughed and agreed to bully their father; after all the proceeds WERE for a good cause; to promote the cause of the Society Against Slavery and to buy out slaves if necessary. Lucius would willingly help THAT out!

Kevin took a pseudonym of Vinny Streele as a suitably pretentious sounding name; and promptly sold out.

He was delighted and wrote to Lucius thanking him kindly for his patronage.

The pictures were suitable indeed for the wizarding world as with a bit of practise Erica had managed to get the slime to change colour constantly under her magical coating; and as Lucius said, it was no worse than some of the crap some people tried to sell who were sad enough to believe in their own sales pitch of high falutin' claptrap.

Snails featured highly in the life of the Belle Marauders too.

Bella had read that snails make an unholy row climbing up windows overnight and she wanted to test this on someone who deserved to be ragged.

Ravenclaw Tower and Achille Crouch-Villeneuve sprang immediately to mind; it had been plain that there was a coolness between him and Lionel Dell on returning from the first task of the Triwizard and as the Belle Marauders were all passionate Lionel Dell fans – between being passionate Jade Snape fans – they decided that Achille needed punishment.

As the only other upper sixth Ravenclaw boy was Colin Malik, who was a rather pleasant youth and kind to little ones, they made a roundabout warning that nocturnal alarums should not cause him any er, alarm.

Colin raised an eyebrow; but as he loathed Achille and assumed that he was the intended victim decided not to pursue the subject.

The snails had to be levitated up to the window as it got dark; they had used the Marauder's Map on a previous night to see where Achille was to find out which was his room. And finally some toothsome lettuce was levitated to the top of the window and attached with a permanent sticking charm, a ticklish piece of casting at such a distance.

Next day, Colin sought them out.

"I'm going to HAVE to set you an impot you know" said the Anglo-Indian boy. "Then I can be easy and say to Professor Flitwick – if he asks – that I found and punished the culprits."

"Oh Colin, won't you please tell us what happened?" pleaded Bella, all big eyes. Colin grinned.

"Well your pets started their business just after we'd dropped off to sleep, wailing like lovelorn banshees" he said. "And Achille went flying out of bed – he sleeps closest to the window – and leaped into bed with me. So I shoved him out" he added with some satisfaction "And he went haring off for Professor Flitwick claiming that there were dementors at the window. I went to see what was going on and I shifted your little allies up to the food you arranged them so the evidence was, as you might say, hidden; I put them back in the garden this morning. It's too cold for snails to be outside for long, they should be barely out of hibernation!"

"We thought they wouldn't take harm on a window of a heated room" said Isabel.

"No, probably not; anyway, they're back under a flowerpot" said Colin who extended kindness to animals as well as younger children.

"Gosh Colin, you are a sport!" said Bella "What impot do you want us to do?"

"Tennyson, 'The Shell'; only one rep each but you can reflect on how intricate even a snail shell is and how much lovelier they are than Achille Crouch-Villeneuve and how unfair it is to expose innocent animals to such as he."

They giggled. Colin really WAS a sport!

"What did Professor Flitwick say?" asked Drusillina.

"Well I gather he asked what I had done, and got a bit waxy that Achille had left me to sleep if there really was danger; and when he came in and asked me what had happened I claimed that there had been some noise outside that I thought had affected Achille more than was reasonable. I intimated he had been having bad dreams as a result of overeating" added Colin. "And Flitters – er, Professor Flitwick – gave him a wigging about not being a weevil to run screaming from bad dreams like a baby and to try to have a little more decorum then to run yelling down passageways and frightening the younger ones; and he said it was hardly surprising that so feeble a character had not been chosen as triwizard champion and that given a choice between Achille and little Jingjie Chang he'd back Jingjie every time."

The conspirators beamed. It had been a MOST successful jape!


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

With the success of the slug-art Gorbrin and Erica put their heads together with Kevin to collect slime trails and turn it into storable paints.

"If we can brew a medium to preserve it, well there's no end of uses" said Gorbrin "colour change paint for posters; our mums wear makeup sometimes, they'd LOVE to have something no-one else has as it's non venomous, and if we can make it a wash-proof dye, how cool is that for really different robes?"

"Crumbs even if it's not wash-proof how cool is that for the Yule Ball when I have to go?" said Kevin.

"Extremely" said Erica "So if you're game we thought we'd put our heads together; because I know about making magic paints and Gorbrin's a brilliant experimental potioneer and see what we can do."

"And if we could get it into glass too" said Gorbrin "Well I don't know anything about glass blowing but we've looked a little bit at enamelling in the metalworking classes – Erica and me are specialising in jewellery – and that would be so neat!"

"I hope they breed soon" said Kevin anxiously "It's a great strain for only three slugs to have the basis of several industries on their er….backs."

"I don't think they worry too much about it Kev" said Gorbrin tactfully "They seem quite placid if you ask me. Have you registered them as new creatures? 'cos you ought to; should we ask dad how to go about it because y'know, somehow I doubt Hagrid knows."

"Would you? Thanks everso!" said Kevin.

Kevin was also experimenting with enlarging one slug massively to leave a broad swathe of slime, fixing that with Erica's secret recipe, and then letting the small slugs crawl on top for a truly eye-catching – or eye-wrenching depending on your point of view – feast of interactive changing colour. He called the first one of these – with input from his friends – 'muse of emotion'.

It has to be said that the first experimental paint was used to write a poster saying 'GO LIONEL GO!' for the Hogwarts Triwizard champion to wave at him as the party left for Durmstrang; which eye-catching effort chuffed Lionel no end.

As he was also using Gorbrin's broom with its extra aerodynamic features he felt very warm that the kids were so supportive.

And wondered how they had made their paint quite so subtle; for the usual charm to make paint flash was basically an on-off flash in one or two colours – dependant on the cleverness of the caster – and was a tricky charm for a fourth year. This constant colour change was really rather good; and Lionel determined to ask them how they had done it when he got back. For now he grinned cheerily at the group and waved.

Durmstrang looked even bleaker than ever, thought Lionel, with a thin powdering of snow on the ground and hard frost giving a stark, black and white appearance to the castle and surrounds, the trees dark against the snow, though most were evergreens. The Catalina's wake on the dark lake broke up the reflections of the darker trees around it in fantastic eddies and patterns, like Japanese marbling. Lionel caught his breath. Even in the starkness there was beauty.

It helped that he felt fairly confident of course; he was looking forward to this task.

They disembarked and Lionel bowed beautifully to Madam Bacsó and exchanged a few words, noting that she appeared to be quite as frosty as the scenery and wondering what had happened.

Jade was there looking suspiciously demure and smiling blandly at a group of muttering Durmstrangers.

Lionel twitched his wand in a surreptitious revellaspell towards the group; there was no way Jade would look that bland if she had not jinxed them in some subtle manner into the middle of next week; possibly with the indigestion curse or a braying curse.

He blinked at the intense subtlety of the spell; some kind of containment and transfiguration of gaseous effluvium leading to…lifting the victim? He caught Jade's eye; the bland look with which she returned his gaze clearly said 'wait and see'.

There was little delay before starting the task; it would take a full three hours to complete, for each contestant was permitted two hours – with points for every full five minutes under that time – but they would leave at fifteen minute intervals, the last leaving an hour after the first.

First they drew for position; and Lionel was delighted to go first. Jade was last and looked a little peeved about it; but shrugged. Between them, Miles, Timothée and Anett would go in that order. Timothée had divining rods of all things and an ordinary map; Miles and Anett also had brooms with them; and they were staring at his, and the muggle racing cycle helmet he had bought in the holidays. Lionel smiled blandly; let them look in horror on his racing broom additions; he would have an advantage for not scorning to use muggle science. And if it worked well, he planned to develop an aerodynamic charm to increase the speed of brooms, patent it firmly, and market it. If his speed was obviously faster than the brooms were intended to fly, the Firebolt Company would almost certainly contact him – it was a good advertisement for them – and ask him what the devil those metal bits were. And Lionel would be able to tell them that he was working on a charm to duplicate the effect of muggle science and would they be interested in purchasing it when he was done. With Ross, who was a rather competent physicist and chemist as well as a fine Wizard, he had crunched the numbers and set up a magical wind tunnel with the conjured air jet coloured to show drag and turbulence; and they were now using it for the Tuthill-Dell aerodyne charm as they called it.

Lionel was moderately wealthy; but the sale of such a universally useful charm could set up Ross for life. And Lionel liked to do nice things for his friends.

Better than that in his opinion it would bring a measure of fame and recognition that would endure long past memory of his part in the Triwizard had faded, even if he did manage to beat Jade and win it.

Be that as it may; he was confident of doing well and he felt supremely confident as he stepped forward, waving at the crowd as he prepared to leave.

Lionel has studied no Geomancy so far as exam levels were concerned; but both Mary-Anne and Melody had studied it as well as The Cynner; and Mary-Anne had studied it to NEWT level, so it had been difficult NOT to pick up a bit of what two of his girlfriends were doing as homework. Besides, he had had the two initial years of introductory Geomancy; and the map was scarcely above such junior work anyway, simplicity itself to unravel even if he had no skill in using the ley lines to speed travel as students who studied to exam level might. Presumably the other two with brooms might be able to do such, or even use a node shift for an almost instantaneous result – if a node shift was what he thought it was. Mary-Anne had been known to talk about such things but Lionel was a little hazy!

The speed the souped up Milly attained was heady however; and Lionel whooped in pleasure! Why he must be going as fast as a light aircraft! And it was no time at all before he saw the house for which he was making – not even twenty minutes!

Lionel had some idea of what awaited him; his blood had told of Melody giggling and then drifting into unconsciousness; and of some noxious substance also in her body. He had to brew an antidote presumably. NOT his strong point; hold fast to Golapott.

He landed and went quickly in, through the atrium to the door marked 'Lionel Dell' to where Melody lay unconscious on a bed or slab. It was a trifle macabre and not unlike a laid out body at an undertaker's. The map had indicated quite clearly that everything required would be found there; and the doorway marked 'stores' would lead to such. Lionel was running his wand over Melody and assessing the poison, which allied with the draught of living death was what he had to counter. Interesting choice, a poison that would dissipate over time if no action was taken at all; one of Willow Prince's, Lionel thought, who had invented a poison that also caused unbearable itching and only took effect if you scratched when challenged to come up with something amusing. How like Willow! He was through to the stores where a marshal waited; and a small room off apparently held a marshal each, to check that they did not interact with any others.

Not that anyone else had arrived, so the boy Miles was not using zone shifting.

Lionel hardly expected to be lucky enough to see bezoars in the stores; but he was wrong and a whole box of them lay in plain sight!

Lionel whooped with delight, picked one up and returned to open Melody's unconscious lips and elevate her throat to poke one down, stroking her throat to make her swallow as with animals being given pills.

She duly swallowed, her breathing deepened and she sat up.

The Marshal ran his wand over her.

"Completed" he said addressing a communications globe that Lionel had not even noticed. Lionel kissed Melody's nose on the very tip.

"You can do better than THAT – later" said Melody.

"Well Mr Dell, if you will accompany me, the Prince Peak contingent will see to Miss Bloom" said the Marshal.

Lionel grinned.

"See you later funny face" he said to Melody; who could now be given such an endearment since the awful scarring caused by her parents' fighting had been cured by Severus. She kissed her fingers to him and he followed the marshal to apparate back to the edge of the exclusion zone and walk up to the castle.

He was greeted with a massive cheer from the mixed Hogwarts and Prince Peak supporters when he got back and he grinned and waved.

And then he was being marked.

Murphy gave him a full ten points.

"And wasn't that the enterprisin' thing t'do!" he said "And sure, what ye've done t'yon broom I'm half scared t'think!"

"I used lateral thinking and made use of muggle studies" said Lionel. "And I'm working on a charm to duplicate the effect."

"Well, isn't it just loikely that half the broom companies in the woide world'll be afther getting' t' know ye then!" said Murphy genially, shaking his hand.

The German judge was a contrast. He gave only five points.

"I am not sure that using that bezoar thing might not be cheating" he said.

Lionel shrugged.

"If it had been, I doubt they would have been included" he said "And you would have heard about it from Professor Snape who set the contest. And there was me thinking myself safe because you marked down David Fraser for using a potions option in the last triwizard!" he added gaily. Might as well point out the inconsistencies in the excuses.

The French judge gave him nine; and that, Lionel suspected, was to leave room to give higher style marks to his own champion if it were possible to do so. He had twenty points for his time – just nineteen minutes and most of that the travelling – and twenty four from the judges, a nice solid forty-four.

He went to watch the others. Which was a bit tedious as no-one else had yet arrived at the house; in fact only Miles had left and the external globes showed him wandering aimlessly in more or less the right direction but obviously not exactly sure where he was going.

Then Timothée was called. Lionel watched him use his divining rods on the map; make a mark; and apparate. Still not to the house; he was divining again, the globe that homed in on him determined. He was triangulating; and sensible to use a few minutes to do so than risk being splinched or losing more time for a lack of accuracy.

And then he was in the house, directly to the room where his mother lay on her slab. The revellaspell completed the boy went to the store room. He ignored the bezoars; did not even seem to recognise what they were and went looking for ingredients. It was, Lionel thought, about a forty to forty-five minute potion if one did it the conventional way; at least for someone like himself for whom potioneering had to be performed with methodical mechanical exactitude. Someone like Callum would probably shave at least five minutes off that. He turned to Mortimer and Mei.

"Ten galleons says that if Jade brews and doesn't use a bezoar she's closer to thirty minutes than forty."

"I'm not betting on a certainty like THAT" said Mei scornfully "I've seen Jade brew in OWL classes, remember? She's a walking wonder with a cauldron."

Timothée did NOT seem happy; he got out paper and started scrawling notes; and went back for more ingredients, half of which at least Lionel thought useless.

"WHAT is he doing?" he said .

"Faffing" said Mortimer bluntly "When I think that I could have performed better than either him or the Hellibore boy so far it kinda hurts."

"Heh, when it's been running for a while, the free school will send kids on a sale or return basis to Hogwarts as you might say for the more esoteric lessons and send their own champion" said Mei. "Too late for you, Morty my friend, I'm afraid but maybe YOU'LL be sponsoring a protégé next time."

Mortimer grinned.

"Maybe I will at that" he said.

"'Course THEY'll be competing against Bella Black I bet; at least Gorbrin Malfoy-Tobak'll be too old" said Mei "Actually so will Bella be, unless she holds down a year. SHE'll be riled! Heh, who's in the second right now who's a contender?"

"Zajala Malfoy-Tobak" said Lionel without hesitation. "The more impots they get set in the first term, the more likely they are to be contenders."

"What an interesting viewpoint!" said Mei "So if they'd been the right age, Hawke and Abrax would have been in for sure?"

Lionel laughed.

"To my recollection they spent the entire contest telling David he was the next best choice after them, little scrotes!" he pointed at the screen "Anett's left. Where is Miles? Hasn't he even FOUND the house yet?"

"Don't look like it" said Mei, soberly. "Criminy, it's taking them so LONG! Don't these foreign schools actually do any lessons in serious academic subjects?"

Fortunately Mei was adept with a shield charm since her voice was carrying and several jinxes were hurled her way.

Mei looked virtuous.

"And as I have nice manners as the English all do, I shall not retaliate to these foreign ruderies" she said in her best sanctimonious prefect tone.

Lionel surreptitiously poked her on one side; Fabian did the honours on the other.

Miles finally reached the house as Jade left the seclusion room. Jade waved to everyone and gave her map to the judges.

"Arithmantic notes" said Fabian.

"Well that we sort of assumed" said Mei. "There she goes."

Jade apparated smoothly and appeared on the globe at the house, walking in the door and into the room where Wulf lay.

"Gee dad, helluva way to announce disappointment in my boyfriend" she said, her voice a little tinny over the globe. Her friends laughed. Jade did her revellaspell; "Well that's an interesting concoction" she said "I suppose using a bezoar is cheating – at least I'll cop it from dad if I do – so we need to apply Golapott."

She went for the stores. She hesitated at the bezoars, but collected the ingredients she wanted.

Lionel was absurdly pleased that she was picking what he had mentally thought of himself. He may not be an instinctive potioneer but he was a well trained one. She added a couple of things he had not thought of; and THEY he thought were more likely to make the recipient of the antidote more comfortable and negate any mild after effects than be truly necessary. How like Jade!

How like Jade too, to be singing a chant to increase the efficacy of her ingredients. It should decrease the brewing time too. She completed the chant and murmured irritably,

"Idiot I am" she said "I could have cleared the poison entirely with a chant. Still I've started so I'll finish."

She seemed to be almost there; and she was singing to herself just from the enjoyment of doing a job well when the globes showed Anett arrive. She too did the revellaspell on her father and got to work in a business like way; also seeming not to recognise the bezoars. At least everyone had found the place eventually; though Lionel wondered what Timothée was playing at, going back and forth nervously, looking at ingredients. He really seemed to have very little idea what to use though Lionel had heard one of the other French team saying that he was one of their top potioneers, actually taking the NEWT, or the French equivalent the ELF, the Examination Lycée Formidable. Lionel thought that Severus would have threatened feeding him to flobberworms by now if he had been so dilatory and hesitant in one of his classes.

If he had been taught by Severus it would have been highly unlikely that he would have been so dilatory and hesitant by NEWT level of course.

Jade finished and was declared complete and promptly kissed her Wulf passionately.

Her schoolfellows raised a slightly ironic cheer.

Lionel went down to the leader board to meet her.

Her group cheered her!

Lionel grinned.

"Well I didn't get disqualified for using a bezoar" he said "Your suspicions to the contrary; and I'm jolly glad you were suspicious of it because I have three more time points than you."

"How long did you take?"

"Nineteen minutes; and all but one of those was the travelling" he grinned. "NICE broom!"

"Well souped up too" said Jade "nice spoilers and fairing."

"I think it shaved some time" said Lionel.

"About five to ten minutes I'd guess, knowing the capabilities of the Milly" said Jade "A couple of points; well worth having!"

"With you completing in thirty five – and trust you, Jade, to get a round number – and getting seventeen time points!" said Lionel "Those few points really count!"

He saw Jade glance at the leader board and noticed her shock over the discrepancies in marking.

"The Germans also felt a bezoar was akin to cheating" grinned Lionel "or so they claimed."

"One excuse will do as well as another" shrugged Jade. "Ah they've marked me."

Murphy gave her ten points; and the German gave her eight with grudging praise. The Frenchman gave her nine and claimed that she had been callous in singing; about which Jade was a little indignant since most of her singing was a chant to increase efficacy. The Frenchman blinked a little at this, Lionel noticed; it must be a skill not known in France, or at least not to the sports minister. He apologised to Jade but left the mark.

He still hoped to see Timothée do something spectacular enough to give a ten for; but the time the boy was taking there was no way he could do that!

The next one to finish was Miles who regarded his little sister and said

"Oh good, it did work."

Emily Grant squealed indignantly.

"Gosh Miles, what sort of crap do they teach you in that stupid school of yours if you had any doubts? Why Professor Snape poisons random fourth years to make sure we know our antidotes – well he says he does anyhow" she added. "Did you use Golapott?"

"Of course I used ruddy Golapott! And what's a kid like you know about Golapott?"

"Well we do his first two laws you know! And I looked up in a sixth form potion book to find out he had a third one when I knew Professor Snape was setting the second task 'cos I thought he'd be doing potions. It's not exactly curse-breaking ritual now, is it?"

"Brat" said Miles amicably "You behave now! See you at the feast!"

He got back and declared,

"I made it!" in tones of profound relief. He was awarded six, five and five points.

"I say, your head's a bit of a skunk to poison little girls isn't he?" he demanded of Jade.

Jade laughed.

"And he also is the greatest potioneer on earth; not only did he have the antidotes on hand I am certain, but if you'd done your wand work aright, you'd have found that the draught of living death meant that the effects of the poison would peter out after twenty-four hours anyway for there being no exertion!"

"Oh" said Miles "I apologise for calling him a skunk then."

"That's all right" said Jade "Better men than you have called him worse with as much justification."

Miles looked confused by that; Lionel knew – mostly from his friendship with David – that Severus had suffered a lot of mistrust at the hands of the Order of the Phoenix while he was spying on Voldemort and had felt the comments of those whose heroism was public and acclaimed hard to bear sometimes. What Jade was saying was that others too had judged hastily without knowing all the facts. From Jade it was a moderately tolerant comment; the girl was very partisan for her father. And quite right too.

Timothée was quickly in behind Miles; and was given seven, six and eight for his unique solution round knowing little geomancy by using a unique skill. Lionel resolved to have a word with young Albert MacMillan to develop his own dowsing skills in that direction. Albert was taking Geomancy as a relative soft option; he succeeded by sheer perseverance; and if he could dowse his way home might have a better chance in the practical, dowsing for ley lines. Albert was also taking Arithmancy since it did not require magical ability and he had trouble getting much out of a wand; and with Arithmancy, Geomancy and Divination, especially his dowsing skill, he hoped to get a job in the Aurors' office as a finder, whether of kidnapped people, dead bodies or stolen goods. It had been a career option suggested to him by Gorbrin when Albert had been wondering how to use so specialised a skill as dowsing which was not quite what was needed for an insurance seer, and Albert had jumped at it. Gorbrin had also helped the lad with his potioneering; and it was one of the compulsory exams he actually hoped to pass. And frankly Lionel thought that a near squib like Albert might have made less of a mess of the potion than the French boy who had admitted to having difficulty in working out what to include. Lionel was glad Jade managed manfully not to say what she was plainly thinking, that such was the easy bit.

As for Jade it was.

And he was well enough trained to have got it right too; for he checked with Jade her reasons for including ginger root and fennel.

"Oh to make sure the stomach does not feel queasy after the effects of the poison are cleared and to ease through any excess wind caused by the sopophorous beans of the Draught of Living Death" Jade had answered.

"Idiot that you are, you should have spoken up about it as you added them" said Lionel "You might have got the tenth mark from the Frenchy and maybe another from the Sour Kraut. It's only potioneers like your dad – and of his calibre – that could know why you put those in; I guessed it was for bodily comfort but I know you – and I know Severus and the way he trained you."

"I never thought of it" said Jade simply.

Anett was last in; but her brewing time had been forty minutes, slightly less than Miles' forty three, which cheered him up. She had taken half an hour to fly there, and accrued overall ten time points, meagre next to Jade's seventeen and Lionel's twenty but more than the seven and six of Timothée and Miles. And she was a mean operator on a broom; and Lionel really felt that the souped up Milly had been justified!

Jade now stood first with eighty nine points, and at only eight points behind, Lionel felt he was in with a real chance at the final task, the maze, at which he would start just eight seconds behind Jade.

Anett had lost real ground and had only seventy three points; but it could still be made up, depending on what was in the maze and how she handled it. The other two boys on forty nine and forty eight points were, unless something happened to all three leaders, essentially out of it; their competition was with each other.

The feast was enjoyable with Melody to share it; and the German boy Jade had hexed so neatly finding himself walking on tiptoes and plainly wondering why.

The staff had a slight – if mostly good humoured – altercation over Severus' use of geomancy. Madam Maxime admitted to teaching her apparation class as did Severus – officially, though the OWLand NEWT was open to anyone who pestered David Fraser hard enough, Lionel suspected. Severus was planning on having it as a taster class as at Hogwarts. Double time for David then, unless Severus had someone in accomplished enough just to take juniors. Ellie was certainly capable of that! Madam Bacsó was not pleased; but Anett Breuer had found her way quite adequately. Only Miles had really had difficulty getting there. And the rest was something any capable student should be familiar with. Hellibore was keeping very quiet.

Lionel suspected he was finally realising how much less his boys learned than those in one of the other two English schools, or even Durmstrang. After all, even if one had a limited number of professors, there was no excuse for those one had to teach to such a poor level. Lionel sympathised; after all, he had himself had the greatest of difficulty keeping his nose to the grindstone without Severus to set fire to his tail; Connie was good, and fairly strict, but she just wasn't Sev. And if Hellibore was basically a kindly man, and not especially good himself, then keeping the staff to keep the boys' noses to the grindstone must come harder for him.

Jade disliked the man; but then he had failed to heal a condition in her friend that Jade thought easy to fix, and Jade despised those who had unrealistic views of their abilities especially those she described as having delusions of adequacy. Jade was a trifle narrow at times and uncompromising.

The visitors stayed overnight; and Lionel wondered what would have happened to the unfortunate boy who had so raised Jade's ire by the morrow.

His answer came at breakfast when the lad was pulled in on the end of a string by some junior who Lionel presumed to be a young relative to be concerned about the vicissitudes of a senior.

Lionel had never come across the fagging system.

"Oh please Frau Bacsó something has happened overnight to Herr Nachtigall!" piped the infant in scarcely hidden unholy glee.

"I'm FLOATING!" howled Nachtigall, rather unnecessarily.

Madam Bacsó regarded him with a certain amount of disfavour. His condition was NOT conducive to calm dignity to say auf weidersehn to the visitors until the next term.

"And how did you come to be in this condition?" she asked.

"I don't know!" yammered Nachtigall "DO something!"

"Your manners lack" said Madam Bacsó coldly.

"PLEASE!" added Nachtigall belatedly.

"You appear to have been rendered weightless" said Madam Bacsó "I expect there is a potion to neutralise the effect; Herr Professor Rebet shall brew such."

"If he asks nicely" wheezed a thin unhealthy looking professor.

"P-please Professor Rebet" said Nachtigall.

The man inclined his head.

Lionel blinked.

That would have no effect at all. He glanced at Jade who was all but convulsed with silent mirth.

Lionel wondered what was going to happen. Doubtless Jade knew if it would wear off; and would not, surely, leave him floating indefinitely? Still sooner or later the school authorities would use a revellaspell and find out what was wrong; and if Lionel was right it needed a cursebreaker to undo it!

Nachtigall howled,

"I bet that Jade Snape girl did it! She didn't get her wand out after I tried to jinx her but the English are sneaky and don't always use wands!"

How like the more prejudiced Germans to call an act of supreme skill 'sneaky' thought Lionel scornfully.

Agata Bacsó stiffened.

"Are you telling me you drew wand on a guest and admit in public to jinxing her?" she said.

"Well she's a smug bitch!" said Nachtigall "AND she got me into trouble!"

Jade spoke up.

"Mr Nachtigall refers to my having him and his friends removed from attempting to intimidate the small children of Prince Peak" she said "And I believe the Swiss Ministry filed a report of the incident. Personally I would have said that he got HIMSELF into trouble."

"You, English bitch, you are nothing but trouble!" hissed Hedda Schrempf "I should like a moment or two alone with you!"

"Hedda!" Bacsó snapped. "You are out of line!"

"Madam Schrempf is sufficiently out of line that I call duel on her" said Jade.

"I do not permit it" said Madam Bacsó "As her employer I am permitted to veto this."

Jade swept her a curtsey.

"As you wish, ma'am" she said.

Lionel sighed regretfully.

That might have been rather amusing.

What Jade would have turned the Schrempf woman into was likely to be startling and original. He would have liked to have seen that.

Ah well, back to school and revision and last minute things to learn; for they would do their exams before the final task of the competition. Lionel was glad; it got the serious things in life out of the way so he might relax and enjoy the last leg of the Triwizard. As a contestant he would make a formal submission that this should be instituted as an ongoing custom. He liked the idea.

Admittedly his exams were pretty sparse, two NEWTs and an OWL; but were he doing a full complement he would be very relieved.

It would have been nice to have done his Auror's tests before it too, but one could not have everything. And the tests for that were after the school year ended.

And so far he seemed to be satisfying the stringent demands of Alastor Moody; and his observations on the reactions of the Germans were valuable to the Auror office too so the whole competition might be seen as no more than part of his training.

It was however absolutely irresistible to drop the fluorescent fart jinx on Hedda Schrempf before he left.

And judging by Jade's smug look she had done something else to plague the woman!


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

The representative of the Firebolt Broom Company was awaiting Lionel when he returned to the castle; and he introduced Ross Tuthill as his helpmate and added that he had also had aid with the metalwork from Professor Jorbal. Lionel was a great believer in giving credit where credit was due.

"It's a brilliant broom and I'm no end grateful to the kid that loaned it to me" he said "Malfoy-Tobak is the House Slytherin Seeker and really quite as good as his step brother Draco."

The Firebolt rep, a clean-cut young man, was plainly delighted that the Malfoy family chose the company's brooms; he seemed utterly indifferent to whether the Malfoy involved was a goblin or not. Lionel remembered him vaguely from a year or so above David.

"What gave you the idea?" asked the rep.

"Well, David Fraser initially" said Lionel "Or rather his concept of using muggle flying machines to fly concealed by obviousness. He understands a lot of muggle science – and Tuthill here has studied it too, more extensively than me, and his enchanted machines use enchantments that work alongside the muggle principles to enhance the performance. It seemed to me sensible to use such muggle principles as I might to go as fast as possible; I didn't know if anyone else might know enough geomancy to apparate, node shift or use ley lines. I never studied geomancy past basics" he added.

"I was at Hogwarts when Sirius Black first was cleared of wrongdoing and started teaching it as a hobby subject" said the Rep "And I didn't – fool that I was – see how handy it might be. I've been studying out of Arruntius Mapp's book, 'A geomancer's guide to Britain'."

"It's a nice easy one to consult" agreed Lionel "I use it to check ley lines; even if you don't know much, I think it makes some difference to use them. But it IS a new exam subject and I guess there are plenty of us who reckon faster brooms is the better option."

"You'd have outflown a Hungarian Horntail in mating frenzy on that without any trouble" said the Rep. "I always thought David Fraser such a swot too – who'd have thought he had ideas of such magnitude in that serious head of his!"

"David Fraser is a great man" said Lionel quietly "I have every reason to thank him. Without his help to find myself – WHILE he was tied up with the Triwizard himself at that – I should not be where I am today, succeeding past my wildest dreams."

"Well, I guess at that, Harry Potter was never much to look at" laughed the Rep "You'd pass him in the corridor without looking twice. It goes to show you never know I guess!" he went on "Obviously we have protective charms against wind buffet; you don't go from zero to a hundred and fifty miles an hour in ten seconds without falling off else! And we have of course the aerodyne arrangement of birch twigs on the tail."

"Yes; and it's the most aerodyne broom there is and the most responsive" said Lionel "But we did wind tunnel tests; and what slows it down is the rider. The charm mimics – in fact surpasses – the shape of the fairing I had on the front which does more than protect the rider, it slices cleanly through the air. Ross and I wish to patent the charm – we almost have it perfected – but we are prepared to consider making Firebolt the sole licensee to use it if you make us a realistic offer."

"Well that's very businesslike" said the rep rubbing his hands together. "May I see your experiments?"

"If you're prepared to make an undertaking to cough up handsome if you like our work" said Ross.

He laughed.

"I am; most definitely I am!"

"Then if you'd like to see our photos of the wind tests you'll see what we mean" said Lionel.

The shape of the protective charm was apparent; it combined a buffet zone and what was effectively a seat belt to hold the rider against sharp movements.

"Our patent is in the shape of the front part of the charm" said Lionel "See here the turbulence caused by the anti-buffet zone; it LOOKS aerodyne but especially at high speeds it sheds the turbulence to interact with the tail. A few changes, and a spoiler on the tail make all the difference."

The Rep was fascinated.

He asked intelligent questions; and Lionel and Ross answered them a little cagily. He smiled.

"I appreciate your caution" he said "But I do have a contract here that you might be interested in."

He produced it and wrote in a sum.

The boys read it carefully.

It offered them a thousand galleons a year for sole use of the charm.

The two looked at each other; and nodded.

"Fair deal" said Lionel "It should make you a sight more than that I would hope; we're satisfied." He and Ross signed their names and shook on the deal.

"The charm will be with you by the Easter holidays" said Lionel "It really is all but completed; we're delta testing. But there were one or two things in the tail part we weren't totally satisfied with; we couldn't get the Milly up over a hundred and ninety and I want to hit two hundred."

"It's a nice round number" said Ross.

The rep laughed.

"Well the 'Firebolt two hundred' will certainly be the next name then!" he said.

Lionel was very well pleased.

Ross could almost live on his share so long as his parents would give him a home; and it would enhance his income whatever job he took!

Between lessons Lionel and Ross put their hearts into finishing the charm; Ross because he felt they should give their hearts for so princely a sum and Lionel because he was a perfectionist and believed in giving value besides.

He had been half inclined to hold out for a percentage, riskier but potentially more; but this was guaranteed.

And possibly the start of further useful spell design in their spare time.

The only reason Lionel had not already studied enchanting to NEWT was simply finding the time; having the chance to do it alongside the Chanting NEWT was a bonus and he was using much of what he learned in the design of the charm. Ross had never studied enchanting at all; HIS expertise was in talking knowledgeably about drag and turbulence.

And it was finished ahead of time.

It had still to be patented however; and that was something to ask Lucius to sort out.

And to check that the Firebolt company, or some obscure relative of its owner had not filed a patent almost identical because the rep had seen enough to try to pull a fast one.

Lionel did not think it likely; not from a Gryffindor, as he recalled the boy to be; but it was to be born in mind. After all, Firebolt too could do wind tunnel experiments.

As it happened there was no other similar patent filed; and Lionel silently apologised for being suspicious.

The concept that the Belle Marauders had of a good charm or enchantment was a sight less useful and –to them at least – more entertaining.

Bella had been feeling slightly miffed –whilst appreciating and understanding the reasons – because Assim Khan had been keeping his distance from her since she had thrown herself into his arms squealing with delight over Lionel's performance and there had been a scary panicky wonderful moment when their eyes met and Bella was afraid and hopeful that he might kiss her. Instead he had firmly put her aside, with no more than a brush of her face with his hand that she could almost imagine being a velvet paw. She was having tiger withdrawal symptoms.

She had an idea to assuage this a little; and the Belle marauders, who were taking chanting lessons from Lydia, set up a doorframe to drop an enchantment – some might say a jinx – on anyone who came through it to give them black and orange stripes.

It was a charm of some considerable complexity and when Professor Flitwick was caught by it he was too delighted by the cleverness of it to be upset by the unexpected sartorial change to his robes and skin.

"Dear me!" he said "Quite remarkable….. Bella my dear, surely you children are not the authors of this?"

"Yes we are Professor Flitwick" said Bella "We weren't aiming to catch a professor though, we just wanted to improve the looks of people like Achille Villeneuve."

"Not that even having tiger stripes would make HIM be cool" opined Isabel.

"Well, well! Well, well!" said Flitwick. "And if you applied HALF the work to my class as you applied to your mischief you'd all be straight 'O' students…. Still, you've mastered the colour change charm, always the one that causes trouble at OWL… splendid! Quite splendid! I almost feel impolite in cancelling it!" he added, removing his own stripes with a negligent flick of his hand.

"Oh please, sir, have you cancelled the doorway too?" asked Bella.

"Now why would I do that before others have had the chance to appreciate your ingenuity my dear?" squeaked little Flitwick.

The doorway was designed to catch Ravenclaws; and it succeeded as they piled out of their commonroom.

There were cries of horror and consternation and a few giggles as suddenly everyone was orange and black striped.

"MUCH better" said Bella in satisfaction.

Achille Crouch-Villeneuve was always good to rise and now he was yammering in French and futilely attempting to pour spells into Bella who saw him as excellent DADA practice, which was as good a reason as any for getting his goat.

Mad and Chad were busy roaring with laughter, both over being striped and over Achille's futile fury; but when he shouted,

"_Crucio!_" their laughter stopped suddenly; and without a word spoken or a wand out Achille was suspended upside-down, disarmed and with a langlock on him.

Bella had fallen briefly to the floor in agony, not expecting to counter anything so powerful.

"THAT is not acceptable!" said Chad coldly. "Bella, you pest how long did you chant this door into existence for?" for Bella had got to her feet again.

"Well sort of permanently" said Bella.

Chad raised his eyes heavenwards and groaned.

"Well as part of your impot you lot can jolly well UNchant it" he said "And in addition you can do me three reps each of William Blake 'Tiger, Tiger burning bright; it ain't ideal but you shall suffer the slings and arrows of his silly imagery for making people who ought not to be into tigers."

"That's Shakespeare, the slings and arrows thing" said Maud who had written Hamlet's soliloquy for Fran Longbottom only the previous week for accidentally catching her in an experimental self-firing catapult jinx.

"Yes but he didn't write anything about tigers. Are you all right Bella?"

"Yes thank you Chad; I guess it was educational" said Bella viewing Achille with a thoughtfully menacing expression.

"You leave him to us, youngster" said Chad "Now get chanting my poppets; I want this door cleansed of all stripes before anyone else comes through it, gather round the rest of you I thing a _finite incantatem_ should do it."

The spell-effect ending charm was sufficient to remove the stripes; to the collective relief of those senior Ravenclaws who had been caught. Being in the debt of Marauders was less palatable to some but there was no helping it. They were the only ones who could always remember without fail an appropriate incantation at the drop of a hat without the prompting of an exam question.

The Belle Marauders removed the enchantment with, it has to be said, some disappointment and went to find their required poetry.

"What total rubbish this is" said Bella by the time she had reached 'what the hand dare seize the fire' the second time round.

"The fellow is actually SCARED of tigers" said Drusillina in scorn.

"Actually for most muggles to be scared of tigers is probably reasonable" said Mimi "I think it's meant to be religious and kinda saying that if God made tigers it was one hell of a job."

Bella giggled.

"When I marry Assim I shall be making tigers in nine months after" she said.

Isabel and Maude who were closest poked her.

"I think she means 'invented', not 'made'" said Drusillina.

"Who could invent tigers? they sprang spontaneously from the word 'perfection'" said Bella loftily.

Isabel giggled.

"Well we all LIKE tigers but I guess the rest of us wouldn't go that far….and you wouldn't want us too or we'd ALL have to marry Stripes."

Bella considered that.

She wasn't JEALOUS exactly; and if she had to share him with anyone she would as soon it was one of her bloodsisters; but even so…..

"Well I guess you don't have to recognise the supremacy of tigers as much as I do" she conceded in a tone of much condescension.

They all poked her this time and their poetry acquired a few black stripes when the ink got knocked over in the scuffle; and they conferred as to whether it would be more work to start again or to add a few more deliberate stripes and turn the paper orange to look like it was meant to be.

They decided on the latter course because it would look nicer anyway.

Assim came roaring into the detention room to see how badly hurt Bella was; he had been teaching and as the pain had been short lived he had waited to finish his class. Bella was glad to be hugged but told him firmly that it had not been for long; and that they were nearly old enough to learn to take it in the MSHG anyway.

"That's as maybe" said Assim "But he had no right…. And for YOU with what your old self went through…. Yes, I do know a little and no I'm not going further…..but I will leave him to Dumbledore and not bite his head off."

From anyone else that might have been a cliché; and Bella purred and snuggled for a minute.

It was worth a moment's agony to have such lover-like anger to dwell on happily.

Chad and Mad meanwhile heaved Achille off to the broom sheds.

"Right you" said Mad "Will you accept peer punishment or will you prefer that we take you to the Head?"

"What are you going to do?" said Achille.

"Put the Cruciatus curse on YOU for a count of ten seconds" said Chad.

They had not even had to discuss it; Mad and Chad were closer than most twins even.

Achille paled.

"What – what do you think the head will do?" he asked.

"Do you really have to ask that?" said Mad in scorn "Because he is kindly I should think he might just expel you. By rights, since you are over seventeen you should be sent to Azkaban."

Achille swayed and almost passed out.

"You do not take him to the head then?" the voice was more a growl than a purr as Assim Khan came in.

"We offer him a choice, Stripes" said Mad "Ten seconds of the cruciatus curse or the head – and expulsion right before his NEWTs."

"I offer a third choice" said Assim "Stripes given by the tiger; less agony than the cruciatus curse but lasting much, much longer in pain."

He changed and ran out his claws.

This time Achille did pass out.

"Crumbs" said Chad "I swear he suffers far more for the fear of any choice than from actually taking his punishment like a man."

"A coward" said the thick treacly tiger-mouth voice of Assim "Will die a thousand deaths before anything he fears; and so suffers more than the brave man who gets on and does what he has to. Is it a fair alternative? I want to bite his head off but it might embarrass Albus"

Achille, who had come to, passed out again.

The Marauders grinned.

"It seems fair to me" said Chad "Me, I'd rather have the quickly-over cruciatus curse myself."

"Me too" said Mad "Achille you are a poor prune; have you chosen yet; because if you don't we'll just heave you off to the head and let him deal with you."

"I – I don't want the cruciatus curse!" squealed Achille.

"You are loathsome" said Mad in contempt "Happy to pass it out – but not to take it! What a little girl you are! Is it the head then, or Professor Khan's single swipe of the claws across your back, Aslan-fashion – not that a fool like you has ever read the Horse and his boy" he added scornfully.

"I don't want to be expelled" said Achille, sweating.

"Then you must take an unbreakable vow to accept this in lieu of reporting" said Chad. "I know you, Villeneuve; the moment you start any suffering you'd complain to your father that it was Professor Khan who attacked you without provocation. Give me your hands and swear that you accept this punishment and will not then go back on it to complain."

Achille was unwilling; but he had little choice. Mad got out his wand and as Achille swore in a trembling voice the thin tongues of flame shot from the end of it and bound Chad's and Achille's hands. And then it was sworn and sealed.

"Take off your sweater and shirt then" said Chad "No point him tearing good clothes."

Trembling, Achille disrobed and in terror turned his back to the great, quiescent tiger.

Assim did not make him wait; but quickly raked a fistful of razor sharp claws across the boy's back.

Achille screamed.

"It will heal naturally only" said Assim, changing back "It is enough cursed not to respond to _episkayo_. You choose to hurt; you shall know pain. It will take a week or so. It is not bad; you need not make such a fuss. Had I chosen I could have had all the flesh off your bones with such a pass. And remember; you CHOSE this."

"We'll see you get plenty to drink to help you to heal naturally and to prevent any fever" said Mad "But that's as far as we go. You are a fool; if you'd taken the Cruciatus curse you'd be just about picking yourself up by now and be no more than shaky and a little sick."

"Much YOU know about it!" said Achille.

"Much, actually, I DO know about it" said Mad "We practice taking it as part of the MSHG; Professors Lupin and Black have permission to use it to train those who willingly accept it. Same as examiners may; only we take it at least once without countering to know WHY it's an unforgivable curse. It helps concentrate our minds on dealing with the creeps who would use it who do NOT know."

"Bellatrix Black used to hand it out; why shouldn't she get a taste of own back?" said Achille sulkily.

"For one thing" said Chad in a low, intense voice "Bellatrix Black-Lestrange of whom you speak is NOT really the same person as little Bella Black; who has none of the memories of the monster that Voldemort created. For another, don't you EVER come sanctimonious at any Marauder when YOUR family skulked far away and safe during the Voldemort years. You don't need own back; YOU never suffered. Nor did my family; but the family of mine that is the Marauders did. I know what happened to Bella; though she does not and you do not even GO there you nasty little creep or I might just decide that you need the cruciatus curse as well as a well-striped back as a reminder. Now get back to school; I'll bring you a soothing balm if you keep mum without pissing me off further but start on our Bella and I shan't alleviate your sufferings one iota."

Achille fled sobbing.

"Git" said Mad.

"A singularly unsatisfactory character" said Assim.

"Stripes, mate, sometimes you're as guilty of litotes as Sev" said Chad.

It is doubtful that Achille actually ever realised just how merciful was the giving to him a choice of painful peer punishment rather than reporting him as a responsible prefect like Amadeo Lockhart should probably have done; but he was at least in some measure grateful to be spared the disgrace of expulsion so close to taking his NEWTs. Filius Flitwick had made it clear enough some years before that if the boy ever came to his attention again he would have him expelled; and if Achille did not really understand why it was frowned upon to inform a girl that he would have marriage to her arranged will she nil she he DID understand the enormity of casting the cruciatus curse on a little girl; even if he was not sure if he was entirely convinced that she was not in possession of the memories of the old Bellatrix Black.

He certainly did not even consider apologising to her; she had made him look stupid and in his mind this was as unforgivable as any unforgivable curse. As for Bella, she did not expect an apology; as she said to her own set, he hadn't the manners to do so and part of that was in the first part of the word in that he wasn't a man.

"There's almost a charade in that" said Drusillina

"So there is!" said Mimi "We could act it out by having someone dress as Lionel and saying 'it's NOT Achille Villeneuve but I don't know what we'd do for the second half."

"Have a load of undecided people going 'er' of course" giggled Bella "And then for the whole word stand for a staff member and have lots of 'please' and 'thank you' said and say Achille hasn't got any of these too."

They promptly went and acted it to their own set who thought it funny enough; especially the Ravenclaws. Nobody liked Achille Crouch-Villeneuve. Even Jack Murray laughed uproariously; he was having his corners knocked off. Amos Leroy smirked and then went and sneaked to Achille who was still feeling sore – in more ways than one – and got short shrift. Achille preferred to not know what things Bella Black was saying; so long as she wasn't ratting him up about using an unforgivable curse on her.

Being a feature in middle school charades was something he preferred not to know about, and young Leroy got a clip around the ear for his pains; and had he chosen to sneak about THAT Achille might have been in some trouble since even prefects were not supposed to lay a finger on their youngers, though a brief and gentle physical rebuke was blinked at, especially between groups of Marauders.

Amos retired with a red and stinging face sobbing; and however much the Belle Marauders might dislike him, they were ready to listen when Avice and Venilia in his own house dragged him to them and he was persuaded – rather sulkily – to disclose that Achille had been the author of the blow.

"Well that's not on" said Bella "It SHOWS; and I mean, Mad, Chad or Leo have cuffed me from time to time but not like THAT! Look here, Leroy, we were planning to GET Villeneuve; but now it's too late because you can't rag a man specifically in the run up to big exams; it just isn't done because it's unfair. But the moment the NEWTs are over, we'll add your account to his score and do him proper, okay?"

"Yeah" said Amos; who had enough grace in his self-opinionated and stuck up body to feel faintly guilty that he had got the war-wound from sneaking up the young Nemesis now offering him rough sympathy.

The Belle Marauders might be virtuously eschewing the ragging of Achille Crouch-Villeneuve for the present but that did not mean they were going to eschew discussing it.

"We can't repeat what we did to Jackman with the darkish mark" said Bella regretfully "Repeating's just not on."

"As he's no man we should make that clear" said Drusillina "How about making his hair grow all curly?"

"Making it clear he's no man I like" said Bella "But we can't do THAT; after all we're avenging Leroy as well and he looks a quiz like that and is well satisfied with it silly brat. We could change all his clothes to be female garb I guess."

Mimi giggled.

"Not ALL" she said "Just his underwear to be really silly frilly trifles. HE'll know but he'll be too embarrassed to ask for help uncursing it if he can't manage for himself."

"And if he doesn't get it uncursed before leaving on the train he really WILL be a traveller in ladies' underwear" giggled Maud.

They poked her on general principles.

"The babbling curse?" suggested Isabel.

"The babbling curse – with a twist to make it falsetto!" said Bella.

There were crows of delight.

"Well that'll do for starters anyhow" said Bella, satisfied "And if we come up with any splendiferous schemes, wizard wheezes or preposterously perfect plans in the meantime we can add to it."

With such things eminently arranged normal small pleasures might be resumed with what, to the Belle Marauders, passed as a clear conscience and the ordinary squabbles of how to arrange one's chocolate frog cards of famous wizards; Bella maintaining that they should be laid out according to date, and Mimi declaring that they should be laid out alphabetically which as she said with her latest card had a particular symmetry.

"For I've just got Azonax and I've been wanting him for AGES!" she said.

"Who on earth is Azonax?" demanded Isabel.

"He's the wizard who taught magic to Zoroaster; and I've got Zoroaster too so there's a nawful symmetry there having them arranged from Azonax to Zoroaster" said Mimi.

"I don't even know who Zoroaster was" said Maud.

"Crumbs didn't you ever listen in History of Magic?" demanded Drusillina.

"Not if I could avoid it" said Maud "I used to wish Weasley's Wizard Wheezes sold patent half hour daydreams for the under sixteens without the sloppy stuff about sex that I suppose they mush into the restricted ones; in history lessons I so could have done with a really nice daydream about mucking about doing nothing on a summer's afternoon. Who was this Zoro bloke anyway? I thought he was a muggle film character who did Robin Hood sort of things in Argentina."

"That's Zorro you prat" said Drusillina "Zoroaster was a king way back when, before the Trojan War and all; and some people say he invented magic but not if Azonax taught him about it he couldn't hardly of, but he was an astronomer anyway."

"That pretty much covers it" said Mimi "Scholars are undecided if he was one person or a series of people in a – a sort of mageocracy and it might have been a title not a name in that case or a hereditary name. Azonax, who's sometimes called Agonax, isn't much known about. Even in OUR writings; there's precious little more than the muggle writer Pliny says. I'm half inclined to wonder if he wasn't part fey; after all, dad reckons most magic comes from unions between humans and the fey, which is how we get to make bargains with them because of a blood tie time out of mind and them needing our blood too to keep them substantial. But mother Krait argues that it was the first expression of magic to summon ritually the spirits of nature as expressed by some types of fey and that was how unions first started and the fey found that with a solidity they could do more stuff and got greedy to spend more time in the material world and that's how it all started."

Bella laughed.

"Trust your step parents to argue about such esoteric and unprovable things! What's your mum think? As an elf she's fey after all."

Mimi shrugged.

"Mum says she doesn't see that it really matters because it's what's happening now that's the important thing; but I kinda take Mother Krait's point that we're living with the consequences of the historical interactions between the fey and humans and THAT has to be dealt with, and if we knew a bit more we might be better equipped to sort out problems and redress wrongs."

"Anyone's parents who did the eight hour chant to remove the Imperious Curse thing from inside elves are worthy of respect and ought to be listened to" pronounced Maud "All right, maybe history is kinda important; but it's kinda boring too."

Bella giggled.

"Well Draco says it's a sight more interesting than it was in his young day when it was taught by a ghost who'd died in the middle of droning on about the goblin wars and was so boring he never even noticed he was dead and kept right on droning" she said.

"Gosh!" said Maud "I guess that's heaps worse than Professor Lector; at least he TRIES to make it interesting. But I'm still glad I got to give it up when we picked electives."

"At least it's better than divination" said Isabel "Staring at tealeaves and wishing for a clue. I wasn't even any good at divining for chocolate Galleons. Oh boy, I wished I liked Arithmancy better though."

"It's no good bellyaching about it" said Bella sternly "Marauders HAVE to understand Arithmancy; it's the basis for all real serious sort of magic. Even if you let other people do the calculations you need to know why they're doing the calculations. I wouldn't let you decide when a ritual was to be held anyhow" she added meditatively "You'd manage to pick thirteen o'clock on Friday the Thirteenth when it fell on sometime like Samhain and end up being invaded by unwanted fey or something."

"OY!" Maud threw a cushion at her.

This degenerated into a general brawl with Mimi frantically collecting up her chocolate frog cards before they suffered from the brawling and was interrupted only by Fran Longbottom wondering why there was such a row in the prep room where they had met and setting the group ten reps each of 'her voice was ever gentle, low and sweet, an excellent thing in a woman' since Fran at least recalled having been set that herself by Madam Malfoy and hoped fondly that she had the quotation right.

It was however a relief to the Head Girl that the Belle Marauders were in noisy trouble; they had been altogether too quiet since the striped gate incident and she had been wondering what they were plotting.

And it has to be said too that Fran was more than relieved that the Mad Marauders had taken onto themselves the dealing with Achille; for she had been unable to see what else to do than report him, and though she disliked him it seemed a terrible time to be expelled. When Chad had suggested letting them give him the choice of rough justice instead she had been thoroughly relieved; for one could at least rely on the Marauders to undertake some rough justice that was truly JUST.

And they were more imaginative than she.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

The holidays came rushing to meet the students of Hogwarts with an early Easter; and the Firebolt Company announced a time trial to be held for their new prototype broom, and Lionel, Ross and Gorbrin were invited – Gorbrin partly as a courtesy since he loaned his broom and partly to gain more patronage from the Malfoys – to watch. The Rep turned out to be the son of the owner, Malo Twigg the fourth, who wrote personally to the youths inviting them and their guests.

Lionel took Arjelan, the only one of his girls who was in any way interested in quidditch; Ross took his sister; and Gorbrin dithered over Meliandra and his little sister Zajala. Meliandra as a beater was less interested in pure speed however; and he decided to give the treat to Zajala who thought she had just the best big brother in the world.

Lucius was there supervising the Wizarding Wireless Vision televising of the event.

Mr Twigg had obtained the services of Mercury Sykes, the famous racing flyer, son of the same Jocunda Sykes who had been the first person ever to cross the Atlantic by broom and Joscelind Waddcock a long time chaser for Puddlemere United. Mercury flew under his mother's maiden name when racing; he reckoned that it brought him luck. His older brother Vitellius had tried to cross the Pacific under their father's name and had disappeared, presumed perished; like many flyers, Mercury was superstitious. He was also buoyant at the moment; telling all and sundry that his daughter had not long since made him a grandfather again with twin daughters to join a brother who had been named for him.

The Hogwarts contingent did NOT meet each other's eyes over the concept of a Mercury MacMillan; especially those who knew Ernie MacMillan. Presumably Jocunda Waddcock had found one of a rare breed of non boring MacMillans.

Jocunda had flown for the Puddlemere United team for a while until her marriage, though not so celebrated a player as her grandfather; and Gorbrin and Zajala both asked her autograph.

"Heard of you" said Jocunda "The boy that fooled the Murray boy – nice piece of work, I hear you're House seeker?"

"Yes Ma'am, and my sister is a chaser" said Gorbrin since Zajala was overcome by unwonted shyness. "Our House Team Leader got scouted by the Holyhead Harpies."

Jocunda MacMillan snorted.

"Tell her to watch out for Gwenog Jones; the woman's a bitch's bitch. I should know; we were up at Hogwarts together, she's three years older than me and I've had my share of injuries off her I can tell you! Favourite of her house head of course."

"Oh, that was in the time of Horace Slughorn, wasn't it?" said Gorbrin "I heard he had favourites; us Slytherin of the modern era would scorn to be as slimy and nasty as the ones of those days, my brother Draco set a new tone for the house and those Malfoys that aren't Gryffs try to keep up the tradition."

"You're a Malfoy eh? And obviously feel it naturally too….one did wonder, Lucius is such a political creature."

"Dad is GREAT!" said Zajala.

Madam MacMillan laughed.

"Glad to hear it! And Malfoys in Gryffindor….. if your friend isn't happy with the Harpies laddie, you drop me a line; I still have contacts in United and I'll see about having her checked out and made an offer if she's any good. What position?"

"Beater; she and my girlfriend make a good team" said Gorbrin proudly "Kate and Mel have a sheet of plays and play to the strengths of whoever's keeper at the time; we've had a few changes 'cos they will keep leaving after NEWTs. We have Dell this year as he's doing the extra NEWTs and being Triwizard contender – he's one of the ones who invented the charm, he used my broom you see and we put twiddly bits on it to speed it up."

"Yes, it was a rum looking thing; I gather Malo was tearing his hair seeing what looked like a travesty of a Firebolt – until he saw it fly! Hold on, I think dad's ready to go; I don't intend to miss this!"

Mercury Sykes recorded a top speed of two hundred and seventeen miles an hour on the prototype.

Lionel and Ross jumped up and down screaming with excitement.

Malo Twigg junior and Malo Twigg senior pumped their hands in pleasure.

And Lionel was beset by reporters for he was news; not only inventing a new charm for racing brooms but being the Hogwarts champion and having used the Firebolt to do so well in the second task.

As Harry Potter had also used a Firebolt to outwit the dragon and Jade used one to outfly the Graphorn, the Firebolt company was considering using marketing 'as used by Triwizard Champions' and were only sorry that David Fraser had used a transfigurational option in HIS second task not a Firebolt; but as he DID use a Firebolt for his refereeing that did almost count.

Lionel held his own talking to reporters well enough being personable and knowledgeable.

It was a very successful event.

And Mercury Sykes declared his intent of using the first production broom of this new series to try to beat the time record of his sister Atalanta in crossing the Atlantic.

Her record stood at sixteen hours, eight minutes; for there were no ley lines to give assist.

Naturally the visiting children and young people would be rooting for him!

Gorbrin and Zajala were glad of the fun of watching the speed trial; when they got back to Malfoy Manor it was to find that the Madams Malfoy had been unable to schedule a meeting with local wealthy witches at any other time to discuss their aid in the Society for the Aid of Marginalised Females.

Some of the ladies were of old family and perfectly civil; Madam Alcippe MacMillan for example, born of the Withers family and incurably childless. As a consequence she doted on other people's children and was cooing delightedly over the most recent additions to the Malfoy family, Gorbrin's latest half siblings Lucien and Justus, born just before the end of the Yule term; and Abraxus, Finn's first child. That he had a Withers family name delighted Madam Alcippe MacMillan and she asked wistfully if she and her husband might be godparents. Scorpius, at nine months old, was into everything and Narcissa had maliciously introduced him into the meeting under pretext of showing him off and actually to disrupt the women she liked least.

Into this category fell Madam Flyte-Johnstone.

She was a distant relative of the co-inventer of the Twigger 90 – without having any shares in the company – whose husband had made money by sheer brilliance selling cauldrons. She had suggested to him making her maiden name part of their name as a double-barrelled name to give more cachet to it; and to suggest the connection to a high-end broom manufacturer as a more respectable way of gaining galleons than selling cauldrons. Madam Flyte-Johnstone was a snob; and she could hardly bear to talk to either Tanjela or Finn. And Nathan, who was Quidditch mad and had been trotted out as being – temporarily – the cleanest of the older ones, had managed to alienate her through having no idea who Flyte and Barker were by saying that he would never fly any broom but a Firebolt; and when asked archly about the Twigger 90 had hooted in derision and said that such was for rich amateurs with no sense or the French who couldn't tell a good broom from a bad one as Achille Crouch-Villeneuve had one and he was a boy everyone sniggered at.

Madam Flyte-Johnston was one of those women who try to take control of every meeting; and who fawn on the aristocratic whilst condescending to those they consider beneath themselves; and she soon put Narcissa's back up by rushing in with HER opinion when Narcissa was soliciting the view of a Madam Ernestine Hardbroom, the wife of a connection of Connie, and a quiet little woman with a deal of common sense. As Madam Flyte-Johnston had already put forward her opinion when Narcissa had asked Tanjela a question and had not taken the hint that Narcissa had continued speaking to Tanjela – and it has to be said that Tanjela used the _sonorous_ spell Lucius had taught her to make her answer known against the powerful tones of the ebullient witch – Narcissa was getting annoyed.

"Madam Flyte-Johnston, are you wishful to chair this meeting?" she asked dangerously.

Madam Flyte-Johnston flushed in pleasure.

"Why if you WISH me to, Madam Malfoy!" she said.

"Good; you chair your meeting; the rest of us will retire to another room; Madam Hardbroom, Madam MacMillan, darlings" said Narcissa, neatly ushering the rest out and leaving Madam Flyte-Johnstone alone.

"Are you sure that was quite polite Cissy?" said Charlotte.

"No it wasn't; but nor was she!" said Narcissa "She interrupted all the time; I will NOT put up with such vulgarity. Ladies, I shall not be inviting her again; and I shall issue orders to the servants if you remind me girls that if she ever calls we are NOT at home."

"She is very managing" ventured little Madam Hardbroom.

"NOT of Malfoys" said Tanjela.

Finn giggled.

"We should maybe get Gorbrin to poison her a little bit" she said.

"She's the sort that wouldn't be embarrassed or abashed no matter how much of an idiot she made of herself on alihotsy" said Narcissa "She'd assume her standing in the community would see her through."

"How true, Narcissa; you have her measure exactly" said Alcippe MacMillan.

"And I shall NOT have her bully Ernestine; who has some very good ideas" said Narcissa smiling kindly on the quiet little witch.

In due course, Madam Flyte-Johnstone, who had expected the rest to return while she wondered why exactly they had gone, got up to look for a lavatory and was intercepted by Reedy and was shown firmly out in the sort of way that suggested the elf suspected her of sneaking around looking for the family silver.

She held forth at length to her own set of course about how stuck up the Malfoys were, and nothing to put on airs about with the contaminating of the family blood by muggles, goblins and who knew what else besides.

It may be mentioned in passing that Madam Flyte-Johnstone had passed remarks on Draco's marriage to Grace to the effect of what a strange thing that the scion of so old and noble a family had married such a plain little drab of a creature and who had even HEARD of the Snape family. That Grace bore the zig-zag scar was as nothing to the stupid woman; for her understanding of the war against Voldemort was flawed and minimal. She and her husband were too bourgeois to hold any interest to the deatheaters as potential allies; nor were they the sort to stand against injustice, or even disbelieve the contradictory statements of the ministry of the time. Madam Flyte-Johnston had met Fudge and thought him a perfect gentleman and could see no wrong in his policy to discredit Harry Potter because the ministry MUST know best.

Despite the advent of worthy women, the Malfoy Manor children managed to have an enjoyable holiday; and Gorbrin was delighted to find his twin siblings old enough at four months to giggle at him and be utterly adorable; and small Abraxus, a month their junior hardly less so. He was an engaging little fellow with Malfoy colouring save that his legs were mottled with the same blue of his mother's soft skin; and his eyes a startling bright blue too. And Cosmo, almost three, was old enough to want to follow his big brother around. Gorbrin adored all his siblings; step siblings, adopted siblings, full siblings and half siblings alike, though he felt most responsibility to the children of his mother. And Cosmo was such a symbol of harmony between humans and goblins; and Gorbrin felt that he needed an extra good childhood to have to live up to that. Of the older ones it was perhaps Ian he gave most time to, for Griselen and Genavka were as twins sufficient unto themselves; Zajala a merry child with many friends; Bella a Marauder; Erica had her little group of friends and Nathan too a leader of a group Gorbrin suspected might be the next group of Marauders. Ian had been in a similar situation to himself, the oldest of a broken family, more broken in Ian's case being the child of one of the less salubrious muggle descendants of Lucius' father. A serious child, Ian; and Gorbrin felt drawn to him, though Ian was a Gryffindor. And Ian admired Gorbrin, who was a doer; for though Gorbrin had never had any ambitions to be a Marauder he knew that he wanted his life to make a difference. And Ian was a staunch supporter of his hard working brother.

And they had a wonderful family, that just being together for the holidays was the most wonderful thing in the world.

The holidays were soon over; and Gorbrin felt nervous and excited that he was taking some OWLs early. He wondered if all OWL students felt the same; and asked Lydia Snape when they met on the train.

"Dunno" said Lydia "I'm too placid – or maybe too bucolic – to get excited over exams. Marauders have a motto; if you haven't learned it as you go along there's no point getting feverish and uptight with last minute revision. I'd just as soon go into the exams the day after we go back as hang around for a few weeks; less of what Madam McGonagall calls the 'havers' of those who panic. I never expected to have a viva voce on chanting from your Dad last year; so I never had any nerves at all. I s'pose it matters more to those for whom good results are important; the ones that need a good job. I'm engaged; I'd like good grades but the best exam answer I expect to give is to say 'I will'. And so paradoxically I'll probably do better than those who fret themselves into a fever. If you've got collywobbles young Gorbrin, when you can always re-take next year if you foul up, it's more likely to be too much rich food over the hols."

Gorbrin laughed.

Trust Lydia to be down to earth!

None of the Gryffindors was in any way panicking about exams; even Lalita Khan who had had so much less preparation time than the rest. She had been at school almost two years however; and Lydia had pointed out that in covering most of the electives she had as much of a chance as most and better than some of doing well. Lalita was only doing eight OWLs but she sincerely hoped to have the grades to take NEWTs and stay on in this wonderful school!

Mad and Chad were each taking eleven; and besides with Lydia, Leo and Polly purposed to take the chanting NEWT after their unexpected award of the OWL the year before. Lydia was taking eleven too, since she was also taking the metalworking exam, Professor Jorbal had professed her and Leo on far enough to be worth while sitting it, especially Leo.

As Leo was only taking eight other OWLs he was glad of that; and with the chanting of the previous year might well end up with ten OWLs in total. It did not trouble him that Mad, Chad and Lydia were likely to have twelve by the time they finished; the boys were Ravenclaws after all and Lydia was a Snape.

The whole of the Gryffindor Fifth had signed a pact to neither discuss nor spend long hours on revision; a round-Robin organised by Julia Malfoy and considered thoroughly sensible – a habit of Julia's – by everyone else.

Julia had got a good half of the Slytherin Fifth to sign it too; there were five boys who would not on grounds it had originated from a Gryffindor but they were Leonard Baddock and his ilk, none of them bullies but equally none of them kindred spirits.

The Ravenclaws were more inclined to interrogate others on how much revision they were doing, especially Daphne Spikenard; and Lydia invented the 'lah-lah-lah ears charm' whereby when someone got boring you placed the charm on your own ears to hear nothing but music. It had its drawbacks, if anyone addressed a sensible question; but in that case, the fifth soon learned to recognise the look of someone listening to another piper – as Mad put it – and to tap the ears if they had a real issue to raise.

Daphne was such a bore about revision and worried so loudly and publicly that the charm was felt to be a sanity saver; Daphne really had no idea, most of the time as she held forth that her captive audience was no such thing and were listening to anything from Celestina Warbeck to Nightwish.

It was probably in Hufflepuff house that most suffering over exams took place; the least academic house there was in some cases real reason to doubt good grades and Amabel Keily managed to have hysterics and needed to spend some time in the hospital wing.

All those who had started their potioneering careers under the training of Professor Snape grinned wryly at the practical; for though they had not had him in THEIR fourth year the rumour that he poisoned fourth years to encourage their antidote brewing had been freely whispered. And here they were presented with three poisons, and the instructions to analyse and brew antidotes for each; and they were permitted the use of a spare cauldron.

This was immediately suspicious; the likelihood being that one of the brews would take twice as long as the other two. The cannier among the class duly tested each poison first to write down its ingredients before applying Golapott's first law.

Once written down, those who knew their antidotes – and as a fine potioneer, Lalita was among their number – realised that much time could be saved in the preparation of two potions at once as far as the half way stage, for the first stages of preparation were identical!

Lydia was almost giggling at how absurdly easy the task was; and promptly went back to re-read in case she had missed a catch and it WAS too easy to be true.

She had read it correctly. It really was absurdly easy.

About half the class finished with plenty of time to spare; and about a dozen had finished so early as to be permitted to leave early.

Comparing notes they decided that they had done very well indeed and went to play exploding snap in the Gryffindor Common Room, Chad, Mad, Leo and the Clough twins being issued an invitation by those efficient Gryffindors who had completed so quickly which was all of them except Theo Weasley, Nell Pettigrew and Uschi Heinz who were still looking as though they would complete in plenty of time.

The written paper was also voted delightful by the well-prepared and Daphne Spikenard threatened to kill Mad if he giggled any more.

There were questions on Golapott's first two laws and on such potions as were covered by Golapott's second law on potions whose efficacy increased over time. Fortunately they only had to know about this in theory and not work out the exponential of the increase for an antidote; though Julia, Lydia and Chad put in an arithmantic formula for calculating the strength of the antidote according to the number of Malfoy lines on a colour-coded revellaspell, this revolutionary way of displaying revellaspell results having been invented by Julia's father and she and her friends were more familiar with both theory and practice than most adult wizards.

The long question was to pick a medical potion and write out its method of brewing and include, if relevant, notes on why the candidate had chosen this particular one.

Lydia, who was rudely healthy, but who had officiated at more than one birth, picked a midwifery potion that would bring efficient contractions whilst also significantly reducing the pain for both mother and baby. Severus preferred to put his trust in potions than in charms where the wellbeing of his wives were concerned. Julia wrote up a vetinarian potion that relaxed an animal to the point it was easy to examine and even perform minor surgery on it; Severus had, on Vladimir Malfoy's request, invented it for studying a sick thestral and it apparently worked so well that Charlie Weasley had been able to use it to give a Ukrainian Ironbelly Dragon a dental examination with only the mildest of scorching. Most people wrote up Pepperup Potion.

Lalita wrote up the fairy flu prophylactic and added that it was very bad for Indian Rakshasa. She remembered it only too well!

There were short questions on memory and forgetfulness potions and their uses; and that too seemed quite easy.

As Lydia joked afterwards, nobody seemed to need the memory potions to write about them.

The transfiguration exam began with the written paper and had a long question on name similarity theory as well as shorter questions on conjuration and switching spells. Lydia for one enjoyed the long question; she had devoured Adalbert Waffling's book on Magical Theory and had no difficulty recalling terms like Assimilative correlation by nomenclature or by association, though the terms were not usually taught until NEWT level. Lydia liked to know why things worked however; and had enjoyed the book Jade had bought her for Christmas. Lydia illustrated the theory by pointing out that with correlation by nomenclature the switch from guinea pig to guinea fowl was facilitated; and by correlation by association one might duly turn Wilfrid Crabbe into a pig or a crocodile into a handbag and by applying both correlative associations a box tortoise into a box.

The practical was fairly standard form.

The conjuratus inanimata test this year was to produce a silk handkerchief; and Lydia produced one with a woven decorative border in an ivy-leaf pattern in damask work and a delicate ivy leaf lace around it.

Equally easy for her was vanishing dirt from a bucket and switching a ball in a box for one in the examiner's hand; too simple to even bother with word or wand in either case.

As it happened the major transfiguration was of a tortoise to a box; and Lydia chuckled and said that she had just been writing using that example. Her tortoise she turned into a polished mahogany box with mother-of-pearl inlay of an intricate pattern of birds and opening to reveal oyster coloured silk in compartments for a potion maker's kit.

Her box made no attempt to wander off nor to eat the lettuce leaf. Lydia turned her tortoise back and explained gravely that she had corrected the mild liver condition the creature had been suffering from before and that he should now live a long and healthy life.

The examiner thanked her in a slightly faint voice.

Mad, who had visited Istanbul and looked at the treasures of Byzantium with his mother – she was looking for muse as she wrote poetry – turned his tortoise into a jewelled reliquary just to be different; and Chad produced a small medieval chest with locks on it and a poisoned needle trap and showed the examiner the workings.

The boxes of the rest of the class were more or less conventional.

The Charms exam started with questions on the incantations and wand movements of five spells, the levitation charm, the bluebell flames charm, the summoning charm, the door unlocking charm, the shield charm and the enlargement charm.

The examiners were to have a few headaches over the answers from a significant number of Hogwarts candidates – the eighteen of them in the MSHG – and a few of the Prince Peak entrants who declared that the question on the Protego charm was a trick question as it was performed wandlessly and in most cases wordlessly by a sheer act of will in picturing it in raw magical pattern. Since several – Lydia included – wrote that this was a spell learned at one's mother's knee before even having a wand especially those who had not started school during the Voldemort years and needed that protection the examiners decided to award equal marks to these answers as to those who described the spell in details since they were obviously very skilled in using it.

The candidates did at least manage to be a little more conventional in their essay on cheering charms; though Daphne Spikenard wrote far more than was necessary and included amusing locomotor charms to make people laugh.

The unkind might say – and Chad did – that as Daphne did not know what cheerful was she had to make a best guess answer about what charms might induce such a state.

The practical followed a standard format; it demonstrated the practical ability. Lydia stopped all the plates dancing, stacking them neatly as she did so; turned a rat yellow, reduced a dinner plate to teaplate size, had an eggcup doing cartwheels and levitated a glass of water and then carefully poured from it into the eggcup to show her control. All the Mad Marauders did this with equal aplomb and control.

Lydia wandered outside after she was released from the exam room to see Argus Filch with Mrs Norris in his arms. Mrs Norris had been looking a bit old for the last few days and Lydia went over.

"Poor Mrs Norris, is she feeling low, Mr Filch?" she asked.

Argus looked up with tears in his eyes.

"Reckon she's dying, Miss Lydie" he said with raw pain in his voice.

Lydia stroked the big tabby cat's head and looked into her eyes.

"She has all her faculties still" she said "Mr Filch, I can't guarantee it'll work but may I try something?"

"Ef you cin do anything ter help her I'll be right grateful Miss Lydie" said Argus "Even ef it's only easin' her passin'."

"You sit in dappled shade with her on your lap where she's comfy and I'll see what I can do" said Lydia.

She firmly drew on the blood group; Mrs Norris was the world to Argus Filch and precious few people had ever done anything nice for him. He liked Lydia and Jade because Krait had been the only pupil he could recall to treat him with respect and kindness; and the little girls had happily tagged along behind him before they were old enough to go to school helping him in his job as caretaker and prattling happily.

Lydia understood the genetic nature of old age; that oxygen itself was ultimately fatal, since it caused the unravelling of the strands of DNA until that caused failures in multiple bodily functions. And it was no good doing a medical transfiguration on the problems in Mrs Norris's liver and kidneys and heart unless she did something to stop them failing again; she had to do a whole body transfiguration into a younger cat whilst leaving Mrs Norris's mind and memories intact.

She began chanting; and she chanted in Finnish to apply Mrs Norris's true name to the business. Mrs Norris regarded her with big green lamps of eyes, trusting and aware that Lydia intended well by her; and Filch stared anxiously from faded and watery blue ones. His story was not an uncommon one for squibs; unloved, an unwanted embarrassment, ill treated and made to skivvy by his family and then derided by pupils who saw him as fair game since he could not retaliate magically he had only ever been loved by Mrs Norris until Krait brought her children into his life. Lydia could not, in fairness, say she loved Argus as much as she loved Remus Lupin; he was not a wholly lovable character. But he was part of her selection of spare uncles and she was very fond of him. And she loved Mrs Norris very much indeed.

As she chanted, magical lines of energy wrapped Mrs Norris; energy that attached to her and started changes from within. Reversing ageing was a serious business; especially for a magical cat, who might be expected to have a lifespan two to three times that of a normal muggle moggy. And that was why Lydia wanted to do it by ritual. With a chant she could more easily draw on the energy of the world around her rather than draw on herself as she would have to do, at least partly, with a conventional transfiguration. And Lydia strongly suspected that if she did it all from within she would give enough of her own energy to age significantly herself. These things do not come free.

If she aged the earth by thirty years it would be as nothing however in its geological aeons; and there was more to drawing on universal energy than that; for there was the energy of heat from the sun. And the breeze that picked up in a gentle vortex around her showed that the temperature around her had dropped enough to cause air movement.

And Mrs Norris was sitting bolt upright now regarding her intently, her ears alert, and her big fluffy tail twitching gently at the end. Lydia came to the end of her chant and sank to her knees.

Argus Filch was weeping in joy and regarded her with deep respect.

"Oh Miss Lydie, I doesn't know what to say!" he said.

Lydia managed a smile.

"Uncle Argus, I'm just glad I can….Lilith's up next year, and we can't have her getting away with mischief without Mrs Norris to find her out, can we?"

Argus understood all that was not said; and seized her hand to shake it.

"Surely little Lilith can't be old enough?" he said, kissing Mrs Norris on the nose. She prrr'pred at him.

"Not really; she'll be rising nine, but she's picked up so much and she's in need of work, formal work, to keep her out of mischief" said Lilith "You give her some good constructive detentions when you catch her at it! She's not afraid of hard work though, like any of us and she'll gladly help any time you ask her even if she's not in trouble."

"Ar, like you and Miss Jade…young limbs you've allus bin, but hard working and willing!" he said. "Oh Miss Lydie, you are good, so good!"

"I love Mrs N too you know" said Lydia softly "And I know that she's just about everything to you…. Reckon she and you should have about the same time left as each other now" and she kissed his cheek.

"Well, you come to my office for tea…. I got crumpets" said Argus.

Lydia was glad to accept; poor Argus was inarticulate over words that weren't vituperative.

Naturally Lydia shared with the rest of the Marauders why she had drawn on them; and they all agreed she had done exactly the right thing.

"I'm afraid I was one of the kids who used to taunt the squib that lived near us" said Mortimer soberly. "I suppose it's partly ignorance and fear of what one doesn't understand; and partly I suppose relief that it's them not yourself."

"That and the fear – unreasonable, illogical and silly – that one might catch it" said Mad. "I remember my mum pulling me away and thrusting me behind her when she encountered a known squib in the street."

"Well your mum's a bit silly isn't she?" said Leo "And she went to Cackle's so she hasn't exactly had what you could call an education."

"Rum that" said Mortimer "That us at the free school get a better education from our excellent professors than some posh schools."

"Well the posh don't need to do anything except marry the right person I suppose" said Chad "Boy am I glad my aunt and uncle are sensible and down to earth and reared me likewise!"

"My mum can't help being silly" said Mad "And I love her anyway."

"Quite right too" said Mortimer "My dad was a drunken bum and times I hated him; but I loved him too, y'know; because with all his faults he did love me and he tried. Not very well perhaps; but try he did. And I guess HE'd have been no different if I had been a squib."

Mad was silent.

His mother doted on him; but she was a shallow woman and somehow Mad suspected that she would have disowned him if he had proved to be a squib. But like Mort's drunken father she gave what she could; and her son accepted that.

Poor Argus Filch! Mad for one determined to go out of his way to be a bit more friendly to him.

Once the busy time of exams was over!


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

Gorbrin was glad to get two OWLs out of the way.

He had found the Potions exam as absurdly easy as the rest, and had not fallen into the trap of doing one antidote at a time. The only reason he did not leave early was because he was conscientiously rechecking everything.

Transfigurations too had been a breeze. His silk handkerchief had born the arms of Puddlemere United and his tortoise had had a drawer on one side as well as a lifting lid as a broom care kit box and was inlaid with brass in the middle of the lid in the pattern of a snitch and box and ash inlaid brooms edged the walnut lid. Naturally he too restored his tortoise to good health.

The written exam of DADA was divided into two sections, the first with four brief essay questions describing in as much detail as the student could manage the appearance, habits and counters to Werewolves, Kappa, Dementors and Redcaps. Lydia thought it a gift. The second part was no more than short questions on the counters to other dark creatures and to various curses. Lilith could have got an 'O' on it, Lydia thought it was so easy.

Of course it was less easy for those who had not been part of the groups that routinely squared up to at least some of these dark creatures; and ironically there were those who found more to say on Kappa than Lydia, who had never had anything personally to do with them, and less by far on werewolves despite Remus Lupin being firm on teaching the dangers of his previous affliction.

The practical was fairly standard form; chasing a boggart back into a box and countering various jinxes.

The examiner was a trifle startled to have so sweet and doll like a creature as Lydia failing to bother with the _ridikulus_ spell but merely growling at the boggart and chasing it back into its box where it cowered whimpering.

As Lydia also did not even bother with a wand to counter the curses and explained when the examiner asked that one did not need to concentrate hard on nursery curses that needed no wand to either cast or counter the examiner hurriedly passed on to ask if Lydia could produce a corporeal patronus.

Lydia proceeded with aplomb to produce a rampant lion on a broom; her patronus now reflected the arms of Bulgaria because of Viktor.

It had been a small enough shift from the griffon she had previously had to reflect her pride in being a Gryffindor.

It may be said that none of the MSHG had any trouble with the exam at all and many got bonus marks for their patronuses, an eclectic selection ranging from the Chinese Liondragon of Mei and Mad to the rats of Theo and Nell. Lalita of course had a tiger, Leo had a lion and Polly had a centaur and claimed it was because she liked to be the centaur of attention.

The last compulsory exam was Care of Magical Beasts and as the main practical would involve feeding a hippogriff, Buckbeak had this time been led firmly away before the examiner arrived with his pretty female hippogriff.

"Oh she's charming!" said Lydia, bowing to the pretty creature and sufficiently in tune with the beast to have the rat she was to feed her ready just when the big riding beast extended her wings and reached forward for it. Lydia scratched her neck delightedly. "Gosh, sir, if she has foals any time, if I can get a licence I'd like to go on your list of people who'd like to buy" added Lydia "She's so beautiful!"

"Well I have considered putting her to stud; I was thinking of making negotiations with Hagrid over that big fellow he keeps" said the examiner.

"Buckbeak? He's a sweetie" said Lydia "He's shared between Professors Hagrid and Black so you'll have to negotiate with both but I can't see there'd be a problem."

Anyone who described a big brute like Buckbeak as a 'sweetie' was obviously well skilled at handling hippogriffs, thought the examiner.

The written had been easy enough too, in Lydia's opinion, writing a description of each kind of dragon as the long section, and then a series of short questions on other beasts; the graphorn – especially well to the fore of the minds of those who had been watching the Triwizard – crups, erumpants, kneazles, unicorns, jarveys, knarls and others. None of the other Marauders had any trouble, though of the rest Lalita struggled a little, not having had the same exposure to magical beasts – herself excepted – that others had. Still, she had fed the hippogriff with the beast getting only a little restive at her tigery smell and hoped to pass!

The next exam was Herbology; an elective Lydia had chosen to help her with potions and because she also found it quite interesting.

They were to repot a fanged geranium, prune shrivelfig and collect bubotuber pus, none of which differed greatly from any previous years. It was not so much in the preparation as in the skill really, after all. Lydia used the tickling charm on her geranium so it giggled and really did not notice being repotted; pruning shrivelfig and collecting bubotuber pus she had been doing since long before she started school idling around behind Krait in the greenhouses, collecting potion ingredients for Severus, absorbing lectures on the right arithmantic times to maximise effects.

The written part had a long section on self motile plants and Lydia was well away; and produced a NEWT level answer since she knew more about things like Snargaluffs and Huorns than OWL students generally did; and also the little- understood and only recently studied bumbleweed, that muggles saw only as tumbleweed blowing in the wind, though it had self motile capabilities too as well as using wind assist and travelled between termite mounds to send tendrils down and feed on the grubs. Lydia had come across an article about it in a recent copy of 'Herbologists' Handbook'.

There were also shorter questions on the care and nurture of various plants that Lydia answered scrupulously and with more information than was really required; since a discussion on the relative virtues of Granian dung and Abraxan dung fell outside the required knowledge.

Lydia had enough time to finish even so; and felt she could not have answered the questions any more fully.

She was quite right in that!

Mad and Chad had History next and declared it not too vomitworthy; actually they had found it quite interesting.

History consisted of two papers; a long essay question, and after a short break a paper of short paragraph-length questions. One might choose one of three titles given; Mad picked "Discuss the reasons behind the Statute of Secrecy of 1692" and added his thoughts that the book published the previous year by muggle Robert Kirk 'The secret Commonwealth of Elves, fauns and Fairies' in Aberfoyle might have had something to do with it, and the long held insistence by the locals that this local minister had not died on his morning constitutional up Doone hill, the local Rath but had been spirited away into Fairyland. Mad had discovered the book in the Hogwarts library and read it for fun; and the date of its publication had struck him immediately. Chad picked the more conventional 'Trace, with illustration, the rise of discontent of Goblins in Britain and the rise of the culture that made the Rebellions inevitable'. Both rejected out of hand the third question 'Discuss the relevance of the Council of Wizards to the wellbeing of the magical folk of Britain' since neither considered that it had in fact contributed all that much.

After the break they answered questions covering a wider range of history from the integration of Roman wizards with the extant Celtic tradition to the rise of Voldemort. They wrote busily and probably returned more than they had to.

All the Marauders were taking Comparative Magic, as of course was Lalita who scarcely felt she could neglect her brother's subject!

The long paper dwelt on the importance of word and will in different cultures and the subtle differences between usage. Lydia touched on the tradition of using nicknames to avoid coming to the attention of the Brazilian fey, the Jaguar spirits especially amongst the Wayana people who feared the Yolok spirits; compared this to the use of naming magic in the Finnish tradition where a name was important in an incantation, be it a generic name for something – she used as an exemplar the _mobilocorpus_ spell which to a Finn was incomplete without adding _homo_ or _femina_ to say if a body was male or female; and that magic using a specific name – especially a hidden name – had especial power. She suggested that Professor Dumbledore had used this principle when calling Voldemort firmly 'Tom' – his real name – to diminish his powers. By contrast the English tradition, which has a language filled with indefinite articles and no gender differential with the definite article and most plural pronouns, had never been troubled, before the use of the epithet 'you-know-who' for Voldemort, with specific naming superstitions save amongst children, muggle as well as magical, suggesting some folk memory extant in the whole population. Voldemort had found ancient knowledge and had used egophonic magic to hear if his name was used and to catch a portion of what was said about him which meant he must have had a headache when the juniors of his time had enchanted the wheels of railway engines to sing his name constantly. Lydia had come across egophonic magic in an old book in the Hogwarts library, rather dogeared and published some time in the seventeenth century called 'Being a collection of ancient and bizarre magicks from sundry texts and sources' by a Lucius Apul. She had also found a reference to something Apul called a 'Cruentes Horae' rather fancifully named 'wounds of the goddesses of the hours at the gates of heaven' and its description was decidedly a horcrux, something that confirmed her guess that Tom Riddle had read this book and later found the more standard, and probably later, term for the repellent magic. She did not write about this; but she had extracted the book for the Marauders' library and had written it all out and submitted a written report to Dumbledore.

Some of old Apul's collected sundries were very ancient indeed after all and she was still working on deciphering what he was on about since his style could be a trifle impenetrable, especially of magic he disapproved of but was plainly secretly fascinated by.

The short paper covered questions on the views of magical beings in different cultures, paragraph questions on such things as 'compare and contrast the view of middle eastern genie to the fey of Britain and Europe' and 'discuss the ambiguities in society of both the western werewolf and the eastern fox spirit'.

Lydia enjoyed it well enough and wrote right up to the end.

Enchanting came next; Chad and Mad were taking this too. The written had a long question on the enchantments required to ensure the safety and comfort of a modern broom rider, and the safeguards taken against jinxing the same; and a number of short questions over wand woods and the use of quills for enchanted pens and the proper choice thereof for ideal results. Lydia was happy enough writing about how different quills loaned themselves best to different enchantments; such that Phoenix quills were ideal for self-inking pens as they renewed themselves constantly; Parrot quills were ideal for quick-quotes pens, taking down and mimicking precisely speech. It was a matter of Assimilative Correlation as used in Transfiguration and Lydia quoted Waffling on the subject, stating that the law was as true for enchantment as for transfiguration.

The practical required them to enchant three standard useful items; a fire-lighting wand, a self-inking pen and self-warming slippers. Lydia pointed out pithily as she enchanted each that best results would have been obtained from Ash wood, Phoenix feather and recycled pairs of bunnies rather than oak, pheasant and Marks and Spencer.

As Lydia achieved one of the best set of results the examiner saw with the items she had to hand this caused the woman to raise an eyebrow rather at such perfectionism.

Leo, Mad and Chad did Geomancy and declared it 'not bad, fairly standard'. They got back from their practical trips fairly fast except Mad who had been sidetracked briefly to note the position of what he thought was a fey rath in case it became important to know. He had not done, he thought, quite so well in the written as the others anyhow and had a feeling he would drop to an 'E' in any case, whereupon a few minutes delay would not make much difference.

The other Marauders made much of his putting Marauding duties before high grades and Mad felt quite mollified that he had made the choice he did.

Ancient Runes was next, and Chad, Mad and Lalita were doing this with Lydia as well as sundry Ravenclaws, and Stuart Markham of Gryffindor, who was as Lydia said academic enough to be a Ravenclaw but lacking the attendant vices had to be a Gryff.

Mad and Chad had poked her over that.

The exam was nothing but the translations of various passages from the languages they were studying; the three Marauders found it all straightforward enough ,though Lalita struggled rather. Though they learned the languages by magical assimilation, studying and learning the various scripts had perforce to be done by sheer brain work; and Lalita found Babylonic Cuneiform very difficult. Even Lydia declared it 'stretching'!

Arithmancy was the last standard OWL; they were all taking this except Polly who felt that she did elf style magic better for doing it instinctively and not understanding the numbers behind it. It involved heavy calculations concerning the optimal time to break a selection of curses when the time they were cast was known, and orientation if appropriate. Lydia wrote too much as usual and returned NEWT level answers. The shorter questions covered numerologically suitable partners and appropriate wedding dates and Lydia made a case for using different number bases in certain cases such as the fictional witch whose name was given as Ariadne Spinner who might be justified in using base eight and should certainly re-check all her calculations in that base. It was again a NEWT level answer; but introduced to see which candidates picked up on the possibility and Lydia, unknowingly, earned bonus marks for the comment.

Then they were to take Metalwork; at least, Lydia and Leo were. A few others of their class planned to take it over two years and take the exam in the Lower Sixth; Lydia and Leo just drank knowledge.

The written exam came first and covered some questions on the history of smithcrafting and the tradition of 'drawing a sword from the stone' from the time bronze swords were cast in stone moulds; then there were questions on techniques like tempering and annealing and the proper times to introduce particular enchantments.

There were also questions on the precise rituals to produce particular results and how to tailor them to specific items.

The practical was not in any way what the students of Hogwarts were used to; for in addition to a practical exam to test techniques each of them had to submit two disparate items made in the course of their studies. This in addition to tempering a partially completed knife and placing a self sharpening charm upon it in the presence of an examiner.

Leo had made for one of his items an enchanted version of the Swiss Army Knife, with a number of useful things on it; a key that moulded to the shape of any lock, a knife that changed size on command, an automatic bottle opener and a blade of sharpness for cutting out splinters. His other item was a pendant with the shield charm embedded in it, combining goblin magic with traditional wand magic. Lydia had made a silver flute that could be kept in the pocket and would enlarge upon command – this and Leo's key had been part of the lessons on enchantment of mutability – to be a full sized instrument; and a goblet that screamed if poison was put in it. She was not as good as Leo; but she thought she might have done well enough to be permitted to consider pursuing the subject to NEWT, the reason she and Leo wanted to take the OWL this year.

The only other student being examined this year was Lionel Dell who was also impressed by Leo's sheer talent; one of his two pieces was a clockwork musical box with a sleeping tune on it, such as he had learned from chanting, his interest in clockwork having been fostered by Arjelan. He too had made a key that mutated to fit any lock but his was a stand-alone item not part of a set as Leo's was.

The fifth year Marauders, awarded an OWL in Chanting the previous year for the saving of Viktor Krumm, had elected to take the NEWT two years early since they knew as much about it as anyone and more than most. Lionel Dell was also involved in this.

Lucius was slightly irritated that there were no OWL candidates at Hogwarts this year to finish making his cursed bludger safe; and demanded that the Belle Marauders do it while he was there to save himself the trouble later.

The Belle Marauders were quite equal to the task and kindly invited little Sara Barbary of the second to join them for the experience.

The NEWT candidates had already sat the written exam; designing three chants, one to negate poison and pass it through the bladder, another to induce dreamless and healing sleep and a third to halt further damage from a progressive cursed wound. The short questions involved making suggestions of the nature of chants to be used under certain circumstances and was a trifle subjective; that was what NEWT was about, thinking rather than returning learned wisdom. Lydia used musical notation for some of her chants, indicating the use of flute rather than voice, as [had she but known it] Jade also did, though there were differences to their answers and suggestions as well as similarities that Lucius was later to find so fascinating he almost forgot to assign marks.

There were two tests to the practical; Lucius had designed for complexity rather than length for after all, few chants required an hour or more and they had been tested on stamina at OWL. The first test was to uncurse a broom Lucius had chanted a curse into, by adding a counterpoint to a basic chant after ten minutes allowed for preparation. Lydia did it with her flute. The others were more conventional in designing impromptu chants after using their revelaspells on the broom; and none took long.

The second test was to set up a circle of exclusion against spiders.

Lionel might not have come up with the solution that he did had he not been comforting a tearful Fran Longbottom over the last question in her Arithmancy NEWT, an equation including terms of Waffling Logic and Apparition-like equations that had covered the vaults of Gringotts' bank – as Lionel recognised immediately – where if the wrong person tried to open a vault he was immediately engulfed and drawn through the door to await capture.

Which gave him an idea to deal with his spiders.

He scribbled assiduously in his permitted preparation time and proceeded as he then chanted to describe a figure of eight on the floor. He described the shape eight times as arithmantically perfect for spiders.

He sat in his exclusion zone; and as the acromantulas Lucius was using tried to enter his circle they were engulfed and sucked around the edge to be flung into the second circle.

Lucius was extremely impressed.

He had guessed that the ingenious Lionel would do something spectacular – even if it was not as funny as Jade's walzing spiders tying themselves in knots – and he had been proven correct.

Leo, Mad and Polly contented themselves with merely excluding the spiders; Chad's line stupefied them; and Lydia's protective circle turned – apparently – into a basilisk and her arachnid assailants duly fled.

That the Basilisk was wearing shades and had an Elvis hairstyle was a little disconcerting until Lucius recalled that one of the Snape girls had made a sock puppet of a basilisk that had resembled the musician muggles called 'the king' and had done parodies of his songs. Then all became a bit more obvious.

Really, he had never expected such extraordinarily talented and creative students!

He must remember however that Lydia and her group had taken their inspiration from the extraordinarily talented and creative Severus Snape; and not be disappointed if future years' students were a little more pedestrian.

Lionel was also taking a NEWT in Enchanting to go with both his metalwork and the chanting.

The long question was about communication devices; Lionel could find plenty to write about and kept a covert eye on the time to not get too carried away. He added arithmantic notes and wrote of the importance of attuning, noting that precisely similar devices for a two way conversation made this easier but was by no means necessary so long as the attunation was carefully done; and might be done with only an approximately similar device as for wizarding wireless that sent out communication along all ley lines and could be tuned into arithmantically as presumably the new Wizarding Wireless Vision would.

On gates, wands, wards and brooms he wrote as happily in the short answer section, writing rather too much on brooms. Fortunately it was the last question and he was able to wind up his sentence when given a one-minute warning without sounding too hurried.

As for the standard practical of coring a wand and enchanting a muggle shopping trolley to fly, he did fine; and for the trolley he had to add his new aerodyne charm to it just to see if it improved handling.

Which of course it did; and the examiner, flying with him, turned slightly green at the turn of speed he managed.

And then at last the exams were over; and nothing was to stop the Belle Marauders undertaking the ragging of Achille Crouch Villeneuve.

Dealing with his underwear necessitated a visit to Ravenclaw tower; which meant passing the riddling door with its eagle head knocker.

And at a time when Achille was not there.

Heroically, the conspirators decided to miss lunch and see what they could wheedle out of the kitchen elves if the pangs of hunger were too great.

"I had another idea" said Bella "Let's curse his knickers and his voice box using Parseltongue because that SO is going to be harder to undo!"

"Knickers yes; but even for Villeneuve it's a bit unfair to curse his voice like that" said Mimi "'Cos only dad or mother Krait or Jade'd be capable of undoing it. Or Draco I suppose."

"I suppose" said Bella "But as for his undies, he can always buy more; it's not like he's poor. Doing that to Frankie Davenport before HE left would have been pretty loathsome… Villeneuve is loaded."

They knocked as soon as the last few Ravenclaws who had deposited books in their tower had left noisily for the meal; they wanted as long as possible!

"What has no beginning nor end but goes on forever?" asked the soft voice.

"The obvious answer is a circle" said Bella a little dubiously.

"Or possibly a series of prime numbers since they are negative too and so they go on forever both ways into infinity positive and negative" said Mimi "Philosophically, a circle does have a beginning, a point at the centre from whence it is described by the arc of the radius."

"Personally I'd have said 'Homework' covered it quite nicely too" grinned Isabel "Many headed and mutable as it is like the dark arts… and the dark arts have no end nor beginning either."

"Well that is a reasonable amount of cleverly considered and spoken philosophy….disregarding certain facetiae" said the door swinging open.

"I'm jolly glad we have a password" said Bella thoughtfully "With a door that asks silly questions and opens for any old crap any oik can walk in."

"Like us" giggled Maud.

"Precisely!" said Bella "On wickedness bent as we are!"

The conspirators discovered Achille's belongings and spread his underwear – silk for the most part – out on the bed.

"Well it's half way to being effeminate anyway" said Maud. "Heaps of lace and frou-frous then?"

By the time they had finished, Achille's underwear would have been at home in an Ann Summers shop; not that the Belle Marauders had heard of Ann Summers but Maud had a brother who took 'Playwizard' and they bowed to her superior knowledge of what grown up ladies wore to show off in. Isabel and Drusillina were only children; Mimi's brothers had had better things to spend their pocket money on in their teens – mostly Weasley's Wizard Wheezes or potion ingredients – and Bella had never noticed what underwear Narcissa wore because, as she said, it was only undies and she didn't notice irrelevancies like that.

Maud was particularly pleased with the boned basque with spider-web patterned panels of lace up the sides and spider-shaped buttons up the front.

For good measure they also turned his socks into very sheer silk stockings with spider web patterns on some of them and the rest plain.

Then they folded everything up neatly again and put it away and retired giggling.

"How are we going to do his voice and the babbling curse?" demanded Maud.

"Curse something edible and induce him to eat it, like the canary custards?" suggested Isabel.

"That'll wear off though when he passes it through his system" said Bella "Even if we get it lasting longer than the Canary curse does. We need him to pick up a – a cursedish item."

"Or just do it as a ritual" said Mimi "We know his name; if we can get a lock of his hair we can make an effigy of him and chant over that."

"Crumbs, do you think we're hard enough?" said Bella.

"Well I don't see why we shouldn't try" said Mimi "And if it doesn't work we can chalk it up to experience."

"Oh BOTHER!" said Bella suddenly

"What?" demanded Drusillina

"If I'd only had the sense I was born with I'd have put a view-o-sneak in his room to see his reaction!" said Bella.

"Heh, it'll probably be audible all the way down to the dungeon" said Drusillina.

Once a lock of Achille's hair was obtained – by a seemingly random charging mass of children, and Bella wielding sticky tape to brush across his head – they attempted to make a simulacrum in the traditional fashion out of wax, more because wax as a modelling material was easier to get hold of than anything else by purloining candle ends and dribbles of wax.

Making a model of a human out of wax is by no means as easy as old treatises on the matter make out; and pretty soon Bella said,

"This isn't working."

"It's a waste of time!" wailed Drusillina "It won't shape at ALL!"

"Can I suggest plan 'B'?" said Mimi.

"Get suggesting" said Bella.

"We ask all the big girls who wear tights and stockings if they've got any they're about to throw out for being laddered and stuff them and make a doll" said Mimi.

THAT plan went a lot better; and they asked Erica to draw Achille's face to pin on the doll

"Since if it's an unspecific doll it can be used again on other people – if it works" said Bella " – and save us all this work over another time."

With Achille's face and his hairs on it the doll was ceremoniously designated to be Achille and the Belle Marauders duly chanted with elements of sending between the simulacrum and its original.

It was quite fun even if it did not work; and such hard work that they fell into bed and went straight to sleep in the deep sleep only the just or cheerfully naughty children can manage.

Achille had put out his underwear to wash as usual when he went to bed; he had no need to lay out next morning's garments and so it was a total shock when he reached into the drawer for his silk boxer shorts and pulled out…..cami-knickers.

Cami-knickers moreover with a wealth of lace and frills.

Achille emptied the whole drawer on the floor and stared aghast.

Colin Malik regarded the pile with not a little horror.

"Achille, has someone done a switching spell on your clothing?" he asked.

"I don't know but someone is in trouble! I'm going to beat whoever did this black and blue and for good measure use the cruciatus curse on them!" said Achille in a high falsetto voice.

He looked startled.

"I think" said Colin "That someone reckons your propensities for beating on kids smaller than you are rather unmanning habits; and are maybe making a comment."

Achille, being under a babbling curse as well as being in a higher register than anyone but Celestina Warbeck, held forth at length about the horrid children at this horrid school and how they should all be beaten because most of them were peasants and the rest improperly behaved.

Colin, with a great deal of relish, hit him. Hard.

Achille did not babble for several minutes because he was unconscious.

Colin went for Professor Flitwick who, it is to say, was more eager to see the effects and find out how this matter had been accomplished than to rescue Achille, whom he disliked intensely.

When Achille recovered consciousness, he babbled even more furiously to find little Flitwick peering at his underwear and murmuring,

"Remarkable, quite remarkable! Well, well, very competent!"

Achille actually went for him.

He ended up flat on his back without a wand. The Marauders were not the only people in the school who could cast wordlessly and wandlessly; and Flitwick HAD once been a duelling champion.

Flitwick sent for Mei Chang.

"Sorry sir, nothing to do with me" she said, giggling at the pile of frilly and indecorous underwear.

"LIAR!" said Achille and proceeded to add further thoughts about Mei and her friendship with the filthy part goblin guttersnipe.

Mei dropped a langlock on him, turned him deep purple in a flash of purple light – aubergine Kadavra – with purple tentacles.

She didn't even bother to more than glance at him. Flitwick was much impressed.

"Well my dear I know you would own to it if you had been the author of this" he squeaked – his high voice was nowhere near as high as Achille's presently was – "but I wager it has Marauder overtones."

"I'll say" said Mei "I doubt whichever one it was is likely to apologise; he HAS made himself rather obnoxious and he DID volunteer to take peer punishment not a report but he wasn't awfully gracious over it… I'll send the perpetrators to you sir, you'll like to know what they did."

"Yes indeed!" agreed Flitwick rubbing his hands together in glee.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

The Belle Marauders beamed at Professor Flitwick.

It seemed politic.

"Bless me!" he said "THIRD years?"

"Well sir we used ritual to do his voice and the babbling curse" said Bella "It seemed the easiest way 'cos cursing comestibles would have worn off too quickly; he's no man and he has no manners and we wanted to hear him babble out all the nasty views we think he really holds and to sound even sillier than usual while he did so."

"Ritual! My goodness, will you explain it to me?" asked Flitwick.

They proceeded to do so; leaving out the recyclable nature of their doll. There was honesty in the face of being known as culprits and then there was prudence.

Flitwick was fascinated. The concepts of reciprocal charms were quite complex and difficult.

"He isn't really HURT" said Drusillina "Just made to look and feel silly."

"Sillier" said Mimi firmly "We didn't think much of him clouting Amos Leroy so hard his face was bruised for days because Amos was daft enough to rat us up to Villeneuve that we were doing a charade that made fun of him. And whatever we might think of Leroy for sneaking like that or even generally, a big boy has NO right to clout a kid that hard. So we vowed to do him and good."

"And we shan't apologise to him, I'm sorry Professor Flitwick; because we aren't sorry" said Maud "We're sorry if it's distressed you but not about doing it."

"Because he's a git" said Isabel

"And deserves it all and more!" said Bella, with feeling.

"And as Bella was the one he offended against in the first place that we can't tell you about 'cos he accepted rough justice instead of a head's report she's got cause" said Drusillina.

"But if he accepted rough justice, is it not going too far to enact more?" said Flitwick.

"It would have been if he hadn't openly sneered let alone not apologising and then whacked Leroy" said Bella "And he said to me that others wouldn't protect me if they knew I was evil and twisted and I know I'm wildish and naughty but I think THAT was rather mean to say, don't you?"

"Yes I do" said Flitwick. He had heard Achille on the impropriety of having Bella Black in school before and had thought he had quashed that silliness by explaining that this child had no memories of her previous existence; but presumably he was harping back on THAT theme. "He believes that you remember being Bellatrix Black-Lestrange."

"Well I know he was stupid but I didn't know he was a RETARD!" said Bella in disgust "Doesn't he think I'd NOTICE if I could remember all the icky things that people are scared to let me find out about?"

Flitwick regarded her fondly. What an innocent child she was! She had no concept that Achille had formulated and put about the idea that she was pretending to be a child to harm people; and Flitwick doubted the boy really believed it but had spoken to hurt those who loved Bella.

"I am going to remove the curse on his voice and the babbling curse" he said. "What underwear he keeps in his drawers is no concern of mine."

"Oh sir, you ARE a sport!" said Bella.

"WAS it a switching charm?" asked the Professor.

"Oh no sir, we transfigured it using pictures from 'Playwizard'" said Bella "We broke into Ravenclaw tower because it's so easy, only having to answer silly questions."

"You found the questions easy?"

"Well I dunno if one of the three of us got it right but the eagle seemed to like them all" said Bella. "Apart from Maud's suggestion that what has no beginning or end being homework but she did like the idea that it was the dark arts being many headed and mutable like homework, AND she liked Prime numbers and a circle so I guess you can get in by making up any old tosh."

"It has to be a little more er, profound than that" reproved Flitwick sternly "Apparently you have the right mind set to understand deeply philosophical questions."

"Everything is Arithmancy" said Mimi.

"Numbers define the universe" added Bella.

"Which is why headaches got invented" said Maud.

"And you're Slytherin not Ravenclaw? My loss" sighed Flitwick "Well, well! I shan't set you any punishment if it was a retaliatory strike but I want you to promise me faithfully not to do ANYTHING else to Achille Crouch Villeneuve before he leaves."

"Oh, all right sir" said Bella mournfully then brightened. "Not until he has left school!" she added.

Flitwick decided not to mention that jinxing him the moment he got on the train was probably casuistry.

Somehow he found that he did not care that much.

He found he cared even less when he went to take the curse off Achille to find the boy still babbling; and the things he was babbling were most revealing about the boy's mindset and what that revealed was not a pleasant thing to have the displeasure of finding out.

Returning him to a state where one did not have to hear his grubby and rather supremacist views was quite a relief.

And when the boy, far from being grateful demanded in the same breath that he get to watch the culprits be punished and that Flitwick also put his own underwear back Flitwick lost his temper and recommended that the boy take a vow of silence until he left school and try to live down the bad impression his unrestrained spoken thoughts had left.

Achille was a boy who was never in the wrong; and so he went to Dumbledore to complain; which as Dumbledore was getting ready to leave for Durmstrang with Lionel and supporters was NOT a welcome intrusion.

Dumbledore was a fine legilimens; and before Achille had finished complaining he had seen the whole story.

"I suggest, M, Villeneuve, that you follow Professor Flitwick's advice and try to live it down" said he quietly enough.

Achille stared.

"You surely do not UPHOLD that horrid little man who favours a proven criminal and deatheater over me?" he demanded.

"Achille you are a silly little boy" said Albus "If Bella had NOT been returned mentally to childhood, do you suppose for one moment I should have her in my school? Surely you are not doubting MY ability to know truth? I know WHY the Marauders offered you an alternative to reporting; no, none of them have told me, I have my methods…. I could have hoped that their mercy would be a lesson to you; but apparently not. I think you should lie very low and hope that everyone who has associated with you can forget you existed."

"I shall write to my father and ask him to take me home forthwith" said Achille "I have finished my NEWTs; I have no longer need to stay in this dreadful place."

Dumbledore brightened.

"Ah, excellent, the best solution all round" he said happily "We shall be very pleased to get rid of you I'm afraid; I don't often find myself saying that but I fear you have been as responsive and amenable to discipline and training in mannerly behaviour as Tom Riddle."

This was NOT what Achille wanted or expected to hear; but he had little choice but to acquiesce and leave.

He did NOT remember his bow.

He left next day and nobody regretted his going; save perhaps the Belle Marauders who had hoped to jinx him on the way home. Still, getting rid of him early was even better!

And Lionel was back to Durmstrang for the final task.

This was to be a maze; and Professors Dumbledore and Flitwick had gone over a few days before to see it set up. Lionel and the others joined them and Lionel then waited in a room with the other contestants to be called as required; Jade had accrued most points and was to go first and he was just eight seconds behind her. Anett was as much behind him; and the likelihood of the two other boys having any chance at all was slim. Unless of course the leaders lost time and exhausted themselves defeating whatever challenges were in the maze and allowed the others to stroll through without challenge.

Dumbledore, being Dumbledore, would not be setting a maze without safeguards against that; it would not be filled merely with monsters but would have things that could be defeated cleverly.

After all, David's manticore had been introduced largely in the hopes that a Triwizard champion might think of a way of getting rid of it. And David had used lateral thinking and dropped a large rock on the wretched thing. Lionel had made mental notes on his first visit to Durmstrang where there were such things as big boulders, glacial erratics, in case he had a similar need to drop rocks on something. It was always well to be prepared!

Jade was having a brief, intense conversation with the girl Anett; there was something going on in the background there and Lionel wondered if she planned to defect as the boy Karl had at the end of David's Triwizard. Harder to arrange for a German girl in Germany; but then Jade was a devious little thing and quite equal to the task if Anett had called on her for aid. And then Jade was being called; and a slow count of eight after that, so was he!

The start of the maze was under an arch that should be familiar…. It was like those of the Nazi Labour Camps he recalled. Typical of Dumbledore to have a touch of black humour that only a handful of people in the world would understand! There were words on the arch; they read,

"Be well primed if you would win"

Prime numbers, eh? And to be discovered in what looked at first glance like a single, long passageway lined with walls like the dustbin run of Victorian muggle suburban housing. Or the first part of the film 'Labyrinth' realised Lionel and went looking for hidden exits.

The first was on the left, obvious enough once you were looking for something concealed; and one was the first prime, so he took it.

Just in time as Anett came in; and Lionel dodged out of sight in the staggered entrance to the new passage. He was looking for the second passage in.

There were two passages on the right; it was the second he wanted. He heard Anett say in German,

"This is ludicrous; how can there be a maze with no passages off?" and heard a thin scream from ahead as he was about to take the second passage.

A body of some description went hurling over a wall ahead of him; one might assume that was where Jade was.

He was looking for the third exit on the left when the faceless muggle with a gun ran at him.

Ah, it had been a boggart and Jade had dealt with it summarily. He shouted,

"RIDIKULUS!" and the muggle's gun transfigured into Betty Boop and started smooching the frightening looking soldier. It was no longer Kevin, his mother's boyfriend; working with Ross to get him into trouble with the muggle police had dealt with THAT fear, but Lionel knew too much about muggles not to fear what they COULD do.

The boggart retreated and Lionel went on his way, counting on the right for five exits to take the fifth.

There was a pile of dead doxies on the ground right before the turning. Well that was confirmation that he was on the right track; Jade had passed by this way.

And if further confirmation was needed, the fifth way opened into a square where three large and stressed looking acromantulas were dancing to music their feet seemed to be playing. Rather silly sounding music.

Jade had as warped an imagination as Dumbledore himself.

He exited opposite and came upon a door, set about by clasps and locks and a five by five panel of tiles in the middle.

"And the thing that stands out as a false note is presumably what I need to take notice of" he murmured "MORE prime numbers? No clue to it being anything else" he added as he quickly surveyed the door. So he pressed the prime numbers – one, two, three, five, seven, eleven, thirteen, seventeen, nineteen – and before he could press twenty three there was a click and the door opened.

"Got impatient eh?" he muttered and went through.

There was wand-writing on a slab saying 'trap'

That would be Jade too. Civil of her. And how like Jade to give a more than sporting chance to a rival! He avoided the trap easily.

There were a pair of doors side by side ahead enclosed in a single arch that was supported by a pair of very blocky male statues; which as females were called caryatids but Lionel could not recall if there was a proper name for male ones. Jade probably not only knew but could quote which Greek myth had given rise to it. What was important was that the writing over THIS arch read,

"One of us always lies and one of us always tells the truth"

"I hate these things" said Lionel "It's ruddy Waffling logic."

The statues regarded him.

"Right" said Lionel to the one on the right "If I ask you if HE'd tell me if this was the correct way to go, what would you say?"

The statue regarded him.

"I'd say no" it said.

"So we have a NAND situation….if he's the liar and said no, and you report his speech accurately then it is the correct door" said Lionel "And if he'd be trying to tell me aright, you'd lie about it. So right hand door it is" he added and went through it.

Jade was inside the passage as clashing rocks were busy transfiguring into ice and melting under her gaze.

She really was rather impressive when she got going.

"Nice work" he said "I appear again to be the gainer from your ingenuity."

"You're not exactly a novice yourself" said Jade.

"Shall I count eight seconds and let you go on ahead to reset the advantage as it's your charms have let me catch up?"

"That's jolly decent and sporting of you Lion old man; no, let us go forth together, there is a precedent after all."

"And that's decent and sporting of you" said Lionel. "Let us wade through melted ice water."

They did so; and as Jade suspected there was a trap just beyond, a floor of nails. They hovered over gently, Lionel firing a rope from his wand to adhere to a far wall to pull himself across it, Jade just flying.

"That's a neat trick" said Lionel.

"Yes, we nicked it from Voldemort" said Jade "I'll teach you later when we have some time."

"Cheers" said Lionel, reflecting that their calm conversation would not be out of place at a ball rather than at a rather tough competition.

They emerged again into daylight; and the walls were old dead stumps.

Jade groaned.

"I know what THIS is" she said.

"Yeah" said Lionel. He had done no Herbology but he had heard Callum on the subject; and had heard about Madam Sprout's use of Snargaluff pods in the defence of Hogwarts from the forces of Gerhardt. "Snargaluff. And just when I was congratulating myself that we were both undamaged."

"You take the left I take the right?" said Jade.

"You could fly right over the top" said Lionel.

"I think that constitutes cheating" said Jade "I bet Albus has put up a ward to stop it."

"Nip up and see; I don't want to have a joint win if you can do this with your unique skills" demanded Lionel. He had no intention of being a second rate winner; if they made a joint win fairly that was one thing but if Jade could easily get ahead that was something else entirely.

Jade nodded. She could he knew appreciate that.

She hit a wall – or rather, a ceiling.

"He thought of that" she said. "I think I'm kinda glad."

"Well so am I; but for different reasons!" laughed Lionel. "Ready?"

Jade nodded.

"Ready" she said.

As the two youngsters approached the gnarled old stumps thorny vines whipped out. Lionel was dismayed; they looked every bit as horrifying as Callum's swearing suggested and then some. Without gloves this would be agonising.

Jade gave a yell of inspiration.

"Call yourself a witch, Snape!" she upbraided herself and conjured a pair of gloves. Lionel laughed and copied her.

"NOW we have a fighting chance" he said, thoroughly relieved. He had a vague idea they had to tie the branches together and hoped Jade knew.

Jade was frowning.

"Hold one… quick chant laddie and we can set up a physical shield spell too…. Three, two, one…."

They began chanting and moved in perfect synchrony down the thorny passage, tying the thorny appendages together, Lionel surreptitiously watching Jade to see how the competent did it..

Jade absently extracted a snargaluff pod or two from the holes formed in the knots, and shrugged.

Lionel understood; you never knew when you might need such, and having flesh-devouring pods might actually come in handy. It would be just like Albus to have provided a means of protection in the very traps of his maze. He pulled a couple out too. He had never known how it was done before; and it was tougher than Jade made it look but it was good to learn something new. They were horrible things that writhed.

And they were through this maze of thorn.

Jade grinned and sang an appropriate verse from 'Thomas the Rhymer'

"Don't you see yon narrow, narrow road, sae thickly set wi' thorns and briars

Yon is the road tae righteousness though afther it but few enquires."

They sang together the chorus,

"Harp and carp, come along with me, Thomas the Rhymer…"

Jade pointed ahead and commented in song, continuing the theme

"Don't you see yon bonny, bonny road that lies across the ferny brae

yon is the road tae fair elfland where you and I this night must gae"

"I believe you're right" said Lionel. "And I bet we get attacked by something…."

He was right too.

The half dozen Redcap-like fey burst out of the bracken, wielding clubs.

The two youngsters promptly threw their Snargaluff pods at four of them – and as fine quidditch and cricket players both, their aim was good – and took one of the remainder each. Jade turned hers into a giant hovering woodlouse and Lionel stupefied his. They had not broken stride. The four empodded ones fought with the obscene green pods that were busy trying to engulf their heads.

Shortly after this the brae opened up; and there was a Sphinx.

"Two of you?" she said. "That's irregular"

"Eccentric" said Jade "Not irregular. We're English; being eccentric goes with the territory."

"Well I shall ask a riddle; first to answer it goes on, the other must answer another riddle" said she.

"Fair enough" said Lionel. His heart sank a little; it was almost bound to be Jade.

The sphinx said,

"A greedy worm in youth I then devour

until of greed I slumber like the dead

when I awake I sup from every flower

and clad in rainbow hues fly forth instead."

Lionel was delighted; he knew this one! He glanced at Jade and saw she was checking he knew too that they could answer together. They pronounced in one voice,

"Butterfly".

The sphinx looked faintly outraged.

"You'd better both go on" she said huffily.

Jade curtseyed and Lionel bowed.

Sometimes good manners were wise.

Past the sphinx there was a pedestal on which was written

"When I am solved you will know what state

to turn me and shift me to orientate."

There was an arithmantic equation.

"Albus just HAD to have asked Filius Flitwick to come up with some of this nonsense" said Jade "I know that as Gryffs go he's a devious old so-and-so but really!"

"Well you Prince Peakers stole Severus so he has to pick someone else almost as tortuous" said Lionel "Looks easy enough." He knew that he and Jade stood with some of the best arithmancers in the world; especially Jade. And although she might be as far above him in understanding as he with his NEWT in the subject was above a first year this equation was aimed no higher than NEWT.

They solved it out loud in their heads; took hold of the pedestal together and turned it.

There was that horrid feeling of shifting as they set it down and they appeared, pedestal and all, in front of the judges.

Albus Dumbledore was beaming at them.

"You are one sick puppy, sir" said Jade curtseying to him.

Lionel bowed. He would not have necessarily put it in as many words; but the sentiment was one he agreed with.

"Seconded" he said.

"I'm so glad you enjoyed my maze" said Albus grinning impishly.

"Enjoyed…. Well I could think of a few other adjectives but let us let that go sir" said Jade. "Where are the others?"

"Lost I fear in the realms of a lack of arithmantic education" said Dumbledore.

"You mean we were the only ones who read the first clue aright?" said Lionel aghast.

"I fear so my boy" said Dumbledore "Marshals are now collecting them."

"Crumbs!" said Jade with feeling. "The whole thing was Arithmancy…. If you count the Waffling logic NAND calculation of the Telamone columns. THAT was nasty."

So they were called Telamone columns were they? Lionel stored that one away.

"You did rather mess with my goblin clockwork clashing rocks inside there though so you had your revenge, my dear" said Dumbledore cheerfully.

"Meh, transfiguration is my main thing" said Jade. "It's supposed to test the way you use your strengths and minimise your weaknesses, right?"

"Quite so, my dear; quite so" said Dumbledore.

The other three contestants were led out of the maze. Judging by the cuts and abrasions and the fact that Anett had horribly lacerated palms they had met Snargaluffs at other points in the maze; and Timothée looked distinctly ill.

Jade looked at Lionel. He read the look and understood; she needed him to help chant.

"Acromantula?" she asked the French boy. He nodded.

Jade and Lionel started chanting and the boy's colour started returning to normal, and he flexed fingers that had feeling returning. It was pretty much one of the chants they had needed to invent for the NEWT which was convenient.

"You'll want to nip out of sight for a pee any time now" said Jade "We cleared it through your bladder."

Timothée grinned shakily

"Sank you very much" he said.

The German girl was fixing her own wounds and Jade went over to have a conversation with her. Lionel grinned at Miles.

"You didn't take Arithmancy after the first year and forgot Prime Numbers?" he said.

"I never even HEARD of prime numbers…we don't even have an Arithmancy Professor" said Miles.

Lionel stared with open mouth.

"But Arithmancy is the base of all theoretical magic!" he blurted "It defines any magic past the simplest….allows you to design potions, chants, new spells, ritual functions…."

Miles shrugged.

"I may have theoretically done a bit better than the French boy up to this point but I guess this highlights how many flaws our school has" he said. "And I laughed at Edward Dubois when he was transferring to Prince Peak learning Arithmancy out of books to take it to NEWT; he'd always wanted to study it apparently and had taught himself the basics already. But he was right!" he sighed.

"Maybe this will suggest to your Head that he needs to concentrate a bit more on such things" said Lionel. "Bigger schools of course can afford more Professors of wider subjects, but you CAN'T neglect basics like Arithmancy. I mean, even if it's not taken as far as OWL even it should be studied in the basics. It's as basic as Charms, Transfigurations, Potions and DADA!"

"Oh well, hopefully it will mean our NEXT champion has a better chance" said Miles.

Timothée had known about Prime Numbers; and had got further than Anett or Miles.

He had reached the acromantulas and had been unfortunate that Jade's charm had been thrown off by one of them. He had defeated it but at the expense of being bitten, and had got as far as the Telamones pair and had sat on the ground sobbing in frustration because the spider venom was dulling his senses.

And once he was himself again he knew how to work it out too; which was so frustrating!

Dumbledore congratulated him nonetheless, and told Madam Maxime that at the crunch it proved that her school taught the right subjects and that Timothée had been a worthy contender.

This mollified Madam Maxime a great deal; and secretly she gloated rather that Anett Breuer had been so confused!

And then there were formal presentations; and Jade and Lionel grinned cheerfully and told the wizarding wireless and wizarding wireless vision that with so little to pick between them good sportsmanship had dictated that there had been no choice but to go on together.

"I picked up the time on the bezoar in the second task" said Lionel "Jade is better than me really; but I can't express too often how delighted I am to have had the chance to follow in the footsteps of my hero, David Fraser; now, like him I have been head boy and Triwizard Champion; though unlike him I do not intend to referee quidditch. I have too healthy a respect for my own skin! I am going to be an auror, if I pass my training."

"Pratt" said Jade amicably "Talking about respecting your skin in one breath and then admitting to auror training in the next? Anyone would take you for a Gryffindor like David!"

"Hey, there's no need to be THAT insulting!" grinned Lionel.

"As the good people of the wizarding world can see, Lionel and I are on good terms" said Jade "And there seems less age between us now, for when I was in the middle school he was a much respected junior prefect and woe betide any of us he caught at mischief; I have always liked and respected Lionel."

"And I have always liked and been awed by the capabilities of Jade" said Lionel "And though at the time I was not pleased with Professor Snape for taking away our seeker who also looked to being a luminary of our House, I am glad now because it gives us the chance to BOTH take this trophy; rather than, had we been together, the Goblet of Fire choosing one of us. And I fancy" he added "It would not have been me."

Jade shrugged.

"Glad neither of us has to know that" she said. "Though I am only sorry that the other schools are deficient in even basic Arithmancy so we didn't get a better run for our money – through NO fault of the other candidates. It is extraordinary to think that such basic background theory was missed from their curricula. Why, attempting to do magic without a grounding in Arithmancy is like going out without underwear on!"

"She gets her graphic similes from her mother" quipped Lionel "I'm not touching a straight line like THAT, Jade, for all the tea in China."

Jade grinned.

Then she was grabbed by one reporter and Lionel by another; and he explained that he wished to be an auror for a few years and take that experience into the quaestorium and then when he felt he had experienced sufficient of life he might consider teaching. And in the meantime planned to raise a family with his three wives.

"THREE? What, you in training to be Mr Malfoy?" said the reporter.

Lionel grinned.

"Well I have three girlfriends and I can't separate them in my own mind in terms of loving one more than the others; and as they accept that we're waiting for the youngest to finish schooling – she's in the lower sixth about to go into the upper – and then we're getting married. And it's nobody's business to criticise so long as everyone's happy about it."

"What would you have done if they made you choose?"

"Then I should have had to remain celibate; because they would ask the impossible" said Lionel. "But they don't; so I'm not put in so invidious a position."

"Is it true you're one of the first to study goblin metal working techniques at Hogwarts?" the reporter switched subjects hurriedly.

"Yes; and I've thoroughly enjoyed my year. I hope I passed the OWL; only three of us took it after just the year's preparation, the ones Professor Jorbal felt ready. Jade Snape's little sister was one of the others, incidentally, and the younger brother of another of the would-be contenders from Prince Peak. It was great learning something so totally different to anything I've done before. I think Professor Khan is going to ask Professor Jorbal for some notes to touch on the theory in Comparative Magic too. And I wish I'd had time to study THAT too; really there's so much knowledge to learn one could almost enjoy being at school forever! It's one reason I would like to teach eventually; I'd get the chance to learn, albeit informally, from other Professors. You never stop learning of course but in a school I guess that facilitates it!"

"How do you feel about humans learning goblin techniques?"

"I think it's good for all peoples to share knowledge" said Lionel "Though I suspect that, even as elves have control over apparation no human can normally approach, so too it would be a rare human who can approach the levels of mastery top flight goblin metalsmiths can achieve as there is an innate born-in knowledge. Even as I have not yet come across a goblin who is any good at divination. All races have their strengths – and limitations. In an ideal world we should pool our strengths and minimise the limitations and fight evil with all the tools we have at our disposal. Here in Germany where Odessa holds more sway than the German ministry would like to let its people believe – and yet I fancy a lot less than before Gerhardt started messing with Hogwarts and Prince Peak – it is important to remember that there are peoples who are not free; and goblins and elves who are most horribly oppressed. I don't know any details but I have heard stories and rumours and that we were unable to bring any goblin contenders for fear of what might be done to them speaks for itself and I salute Mortimer Bane, as a part goblin, for his cast iron ones in coming with us. Had the school he attended before he got sponsored to sixth form at Hogwarts returned a champion this time, it would have been him; and he would, I assure you, have given us at least as good a run for our money as the two who were behind the leaders. And he'd have eaten prime numbers for breakfast; he's doing Arithmancy as one of his five NEWTs."

"FIVE?"

"Yes; not a bad number for someone who did five years work in one to take OWLs is it?" said Lionel "He's taking as NEWTs the ones he got 'O' in at OWL." And it did no harm to plug the free school; for that was no mean credit to its Professors either. And let Mort have the credit too for HIS massive achievement! "I think that his achievement is as great in its way as winning a Triwizard; because WE've all had years of education behind us; and I'd certainly mark him a serious rival even so" said Lionel firmly.

That would give people something to think about!


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

The competition finished with a Ball which was at least a little less oppressively heavy than the Yule Ball; Madam Bacsó presumably wished to avoid having it brightened up the way Jade had done to the last one. The dance music was fairly innocuous.

Hedda Schrempf was also conspicuous by her absence.

Perhaps the Durmstrang head had ordered her not to attend to make sure that there were no incidents. Lionel would not have put it past Jade to engineer an incident to be rid of a nasty piece of work; and claim airily that it had been for shits and giggles.

There was no suggestion that Anett Breuer was to defect; she seemed in reasonably good odour with her head, despite dancing with Mort Bane; and even with the aristocratic looking junker Von Frettchen, to whom he had been introduced by Anett, who appeared to be someone official; a member of the ministry perhaps, or a school governor.

It was however good to get back to Hogwarts.

Where he would finally say goodbye to it, reflected Lionel sadly.

And how wonderfully typical of the pupils – the Belle Marauders he had no doubt – to rig up the sixth form common room doorposts to blow raspberries and drop a deadfall of rubber spiders on him.

He had no study of his own any more – that had been ceded to Fran – but on his desk were cards and letters of congratulation such as the children had sent to David; himself among those that had done so. And Lionel was crying with pleasure that he had perhaps been able to be an inspiration to some of his juniors even as David had been to him.

There was time for a few more impromptu quidditch matches before they left school for the summer; and Me-First Murray was flying well and seemed determined to put his disastrous start behind him.

The MSHG had done much for the boy; and what Lionel did not know was that Murray had finally approached Gorbrin and blurted,

"I'm sorry I called you a cheat and said stuff that was wrong about your mother."

Gorbrin was a big hearted lad.

He held out a hand.

"Behind us then; and a new start" he said.

"Thanks" said Murray.

He was a boy who believed in his own abilities; but he loved quidditch more than he loved himself and was able to acknowledge Gorbrin's virtuosity on a broom.

They would never be friends; but they could now be civil towards each other and work amicably enough in the MSHG if they had to stand together against external threats.

And truth to tell, Murray actually regretted that Odessa had run out of Huorns; he would not have minded working with Gorbrin to deliver weedkiller to their roots as the ultimate test of broom control. And he was more than ready to learn combat flying to fight any foe.

If Viktor Krumm could do it so could he.

And if he envied Sekunder Singh for being scouted at so young an age, he was also able to appreciate the boy's skill.

They had some pretty supreme seeker types in the school at the moment; it was almost a waste that they were not to face Huorns!

Amos Leroy loved nobody and nothing more than himself; but as he had a goody box from home he managed to find enough in himself to offer to share with the Belle Marauders as they had fixed up Achille so good and proper.

With Achille's falsetto babbling the whole of Ravenclaw tower knew of the curse on him – and of his ludicrous underwear, for as that was uppermost in his mind he had babbled freely about that too and all the juniors and middles had crept up to look. And Ming Chang – who was old enough to have a better sense of responsibility – 'borrowed' Lakshmi Indrani's exotic scent that Ming had described as 'eau de goblin brothel expensEEve' and sprayed it liberally on the lingerie while Achille was having his final interview with Dumbledore and so they had seen him off under what Ming described as a 'cloud of opprobrium and brothel-scented fug'.

The smell was still hanging around the tower after the Triwizard was completed and Lakshmi had boxed Ming's ears well and demanded that he contribute towards some more.

Ming beamed, told her he could do better than that, asked for a sample, roped in Gorbrin, and proceeded to use potioneering and transfigurational skills to produce her a gallon demijohn of it.

Lakshmi forgave him on the spot and treated both boys to the stickiest tea they desired in Madam Rosmerta's 'Three Broomsticks'.

And then Ming, Gorbrin, Meliandra and Erica were invited by the Mad Marauders to be part of the blood group.

"We know you don't maraud" said Lydia "But we thought you were the staunchest warriors and were likely to be ready to back us – as well as being prepared to do your own thing."

"I'd add Jardak and Jazka to us if you want staunch warriors to take wounds for the primaries" said Gorbrin "Which is what it's all about, isn't it? People fighting Odessa and there being enough to bounce unforgivable curses."

"Yes" said Leo "That is what it's about; or about any one of YOU ending up as the principal if need be. You plan on social reform; and you'll run against the unscrupulous who will try to bump you off to stop their profit margin being cut into. It's all part of the same thing. Nip and get the other two then if you think they'd join."

A blooding was more exhausting than they might have guessed!

And once they were joined to so many whom they could feel Gorbrin was glad they had said yes for more reasons than a sense of duty to support those who needed it.

And he smiled at Meliandra; and knew more than ever that they were destined for each other; and wondered if Ming and Erica were aware how well they complemented each other.

And Jaska and Jardak for that matter!

And Ming and Mei – who always showed a united front to outsiders anyway – understood each other a little better, and Ming was overjoyed to be trusted by his sister at last to be a part of the important work she was involved in. He had often felt wistful that he had never been invited to be a Marauder and had wished that he had been in a year when others he liked so well had felt a desire to Maraud. This however was the next best thing!

"And those of us who are blood group and marauders will be tougher on you in class" said Sirius Black. This was him, Remus Lupin and Assim Khan; and the neophytes nodded solemnly.

It was the same as the MSHG only more so.

And Gorbrin was touched to be brought in to this deeper level; to be thought worthy.

"This is NOT the sort of thing one tells the parents" said Meliandra, thoughtfully. "Not my parents, anyhow. They get upset enough that I knock around with a goblin boy, even one named Malfoy."

Gorbrin grinned ruefully.

"Probably BECAUSE I'm a goblin named Malfoy; Malfoy arrogance is hard enough to take from tall elegant humans like dad, but I bet they resent it in me; and I kind of almost have to do Draco impressions at people who look at me like I'm scum."

"I'm sorry my parents think you're scum" sighed Meliandra "At least mummy says that I have the right to make friends with whoever I choose and that my happiness is what counts; and they love me enough to go with that."

"Then I guess I have to respect them" said Gorbrin soberly "Because it can't be easy standing by and watching a child's friendship when everything you've been taught revolts against it. Mel, do you think they'd be more able to accept me if I can be a straight 'O' student?"

Meliandra considered.

"You know, it's pretty awful but I think it might help" she said "Then they could say that of course you were an EXCEPTIONAL goblin. And I say, thanks awfully for trying to understand them, not just despising them like Narcissa does."

"Mother Narcissa's a bit hasty sometimes" said Gorbrin tolerantly. "And she didn't get on well with your dad at school; Slytherin House was pretty awful then and not likely to bring out the best in people. And I guess it's hard to get over school enmities; when we have kids I'll find it a bit hard to be civil to Zabini in Diagon Alley and I think if any of our kids were friendly with a junior Zabini it'd be hard to be entirely objective."

"Narcissa's been remarkably nice to me though; I have to give her an awful lot of kudos for that" said Meliandra.

"Yes; but you took a ticking off from her in Diagon Alley that first time and took it on board; and she SAW you stopping to think. And Narcissa is as hasty to give credit as to give criticism you know. She liked the fair mind that showed from word go. And you've never been in the least bit racist. Your parents aren't RACIST; just a bit prejudiced because of upbringing. We'll just have to help them overcome it and try to help Narcissa to be a bit less prejudiced against your dad."

Meliandra brightened.

"Sometimes bringing up parents is awfully wearing though" she sighed.

The informal quidditch matches had been fun and something of a close run thing; but over the year, Ravenclaw's well endowed first and second sevens had accrued the most wins, pipping Slytherin by one win.

They would deserve the David Fraser Shield however; and Jack Murray had improved enough to be proud of his house for winning it rather than seeing it as down to his efforts.

He had tried to do as Viktor Krumm had done, reaching past Gorbrin for the snitch; and had almost pulled it off, but Gorbrin got it first, and to little avail since the insane trio of Mad Marauder chasers had already bagged a total so high that Gorbrin's catch could only pull off a draw. But Murray was sufficiently laid back that Gorbrin felt able to tease him that having got that up close and personal he'd be affronted not to be invited to the next school ball.

Murray had blinked; taken on board that Gorbrin was teasing him; and actually managed to laugh.

"At least you're not a ruddy hermaphrodite like Amos Leroy" he said.

"Laugh it up; we get Chrysogon Rufus not this September but next – with his pretty curls and a GIRL's name" said Gorbrin.

Murray pulled a face.

"He's a Lockhart too so he's bound to be wished on us… Mad has to have curls for his mum in the hols though, don't he?"

"Yeah, but I got told he tried to persuade his cousin to have fun and get dirty and the precious poppet turned him down" said Gorbrin gloomily.

"He did indeed" said Mad joining the conversation and picking it up cheerfully.

"No offence, Mad, but you are – or can be – a rather intimidating creature even to someone only two years younger than you like me" said Murray "This sprout's just a babe; maybe he got the wrong idea."

"Well, we'll give him the benefit of the doubt" said Mad grimly "And if he's an oik I'll jolly well see about getting the younger ones to shake him down well. I'm not having another object of derision with my name; my wretched dad is bad enough."

"Because he's insane?" asked Murray.

"No; I'd be sorry for him about that if it hadn't been his own fault!" said Mad "His whole reputation was built on stealing the stories of other people; and he wasn't that scrupulous about the means he used to keep them quiet. He planned to pretend to have arrived just too late to save Harry, Hermione and Ron from the Basilisk – after Harry killed it – and wipe their memories to take the credit, and I guess if he'd had to he'd have murdered them; only he used Ron's broken wand and confunded himself and good instead 'cos it backfired. I'm not proud to have a dad like that but it's not something I can do anything about. I CAN try to save a younger relative from himself. Us sitting on you has turned you out okay after all" he added. Murray flushed. He was not nearly as self absorbed as he had once been and he knew that offhand praise from a Marauder was worth having. "I was a bit prejudiced against you too I have to say" Mad admitted "Because your famous great aunt boasted something rotten that reminded me of dad; and as he was all squeak and no trousers, it made me wonder."

Murray flushed.

"Well I guess it's not her that's credited with the fastest ever snitch catch…. But I think it was just that she spoke out without thinking, not boasting" he said.

"Well I'll think kindlier of her then" said Mad "Because I'm guilty enough of that…well, your juniors thrashed ours so I make that Ravenclaw's shield. Try not to grope Gorbrin too much in public."

Both young seekers were moved to hurl hexes at him for that; which Mad laughingly countered and made his escape.

And term was pretty much over bar the loading down of the students with massive holiday assignments to 'catch up what was missed with the Triwizard and ending term early' as it was generally put.

There were those who would have preferred to have had an extra week at school and done the work then; but as Bella said,

"It's part of a CUNNING PLAN on the part of the staff to get more time off."

The Belle Marauders and Gorbrin's set of newly blooded planned to spend the first week of the holidays together at Malfoy Manor and get ALL their holiday tasks done the better to enjoy the rest; and they invited Mafalda Prewett, the Monk boys, Jack Clements Venilia Cornfoot and Avice Crawford to join them and on a sudden whim, Jack Murray too, 'to celebrate you joining the human race' as Bella said but with such a beaming smile it robbed most of the offence from the comment. With the various relations, the entire first of Slytherin house of their year would be there as well as sundry others from other houses.

Gorbrin, in a spirit of generosity, also invited Albert MacMillan; who could do with help, more in the department of not panicking than in doing the essays. Albert was a hard worker and was finding a sense of self worth but if he could go home to his rather sceptical family with the pride of having completed his holiday work, and not got in a stress about it he could have a much better time of it.

Albert was delighted; not so much for the kudos of staying at Malfoy Manor – which excited his parents when he wrote – but to have the chance to have help from celebrated scholars like Gorbrin and Ming.

It was as well that neither of the boys knew that Albert's father said,

"Well, well, I suppose Lucius likes his adopted Goblin boy to have a squib to be friends with, shows him up less I imagine."

It would also have rather hurt Albert had he known that, on receiving his end of year report, his parents contacted Dumbledore to ask if they had been sent the wrong child's report as several subjects here showed an 'E' average and only two at 'P'. Albus managed to hide how angry that made HIM and pointed out that some children were just late developers and that Albert was a perfectly adequate scholar and a fine sportsman too.

The sport involved was cricket; and there was that at the end of the term too, matches against St Jodoc's and Henderson's Ladies' College, the two muggle schools they customarily played. The Hendys' second eleven pulled off a fiercely fought win this time and the senior match was rained off half way through; the first eleven beat St Jodoc's for a change and the second eleven was beaten by one run, being all out one run short.

St Jodoc's were however taking up hurley, after several years of hearing Hogwartians wax lyrical about it; and a fixture was to be played on the muggle school's half term in the autumn term and Gorbrin joked that both teams were to provide their own coffins for players who perished in the line of duty.

It is to be said that some of the St Jodoc's hockey team had refused point blank to play hurley on grounds that it sounded worse than playing girls at hockey which was dangerous enough.

And then it was back to school for the end of year feast and celebrating Lionel's joint win with Jade in fine style and too much to eat; which was the school child's way of celebrating most things.

Lionel had still to complete his training as an Auror; but Alastor Moody was persuaded to stand up and make a few comments to the effect that he seemed to be shaping up adequately enough so far so long as such excess of praise did not make him cocky.

Lionel grinned.

Alastor was good at making sure his protégés did not get cocky.

The David Fraser Shield went, as anticipated, to Ravenclaw; and the House Cup by the slightest margin to Slytherin and Dumbledore delighted to announce that once again the points for all the houses lay within seventy of each other across the board. The Marauders Shield was awarded to Mei, Mortimer, Freya and Ross for being the team that chanted to save the two wounded boys at the triwizard, working not only across house but across normal groups, and indeed across schools since Prince Peakers were involved as well.

He also had a further announcement to make.

"I expect the first at least recall Walter Crabbe who had to be sent to St Mungo's for his unfortunate sickness of the mind. It was determined that this had been caused by a cursed book he had been given as a small child, from a wicked individual who wanted to hurt the family; aurors have THAT well in hand. Because the book could be studied the healers at St Mungo's have every expectation that Walter will make a full recovery; but his progress will not be rapid. The healers think that he will be able to re-enter school not the next academic year but the one after, and what class he is in will be determined by whether he has been able to do any study at home. When he does return, I trust you will all be ready to give him a new start; as he should, effectively, be a different boy. I leave you to reflect on your own good fortune not to be in that poor child's shoes; and wish you a happy and productive holiday!"

It is to be said that Bella muttered rather about it being tactless to include a word like 'productive' when they had so much holiday work to do; but generally, the head was met with cheers and shouts of joy for the holidays!

And in the spirit of getting stuff over and done, the group of self-help homework hustlers managed to get one and a half of their essays done on the train.

There was, after all, nothing else to do except jinx Zabini and Crabbe and such simple pleasures palled after a while.

And in getting holiday assignments done, every little helped!

**finis**


End file.
